Tsuki's Maverick
by justinr1995
Summary: AU. Naruto is 12 years old and the Chunin Exams are right around the corner. Having inconspicuously lived away from his birth home for his entire life and having been thought dead since the day he was born, what kind of Naruto will emerge from these circumstances? No harem. Rated T for language and later events.
1. Prologue

_**AN: Hey guys, another idea for a FanFic; I currently have a little case of writer's block with my other story, so I'm writing this one to try and get it out of my head so I can get back to my other story. **_

_**This is a little idea that I came up with one night before bed, and it's been bugging me for ages. I'm posting up the first chapter, see what you guys think and then I'll decide whether to carry on with it. If you have any questions regarding things in the story, or perhaps you don't like how I've written something or something is plausible, let me know, and I'll try and fix or explain it to you. I have added all english translations into brackets beside some things that are Japanese, I know some of you might find it annoying, but for those first time readers, it's a bit of an adjustment getting used to some Japanese terms. Those of you who don't like it... tough.**_

_**Now that that's out of the way, please continue with the story...**_

_**LAST EDIT: (24/05/2014) - A few minor changes here and there with regards to a little formatting, few spelling corrections, nothing too serious. This was before I had a beta, so it should all be fixed now.  
**_

**Disclaimer: All characters of Naruto and things Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

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_Chapter 1: Prologue_

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"Normal talking"

'Normal thinking'

**_"Biju/Summon talking"_**

**_'Biju/Summon thinking'_**

* * *

_Somewhere in Tsuki no Kuni __**(Land of the Moon)...**_

* * *

The water of the Kaijū Ocean sounded out with a roar as the billowing waves of the sea crashed against the sandy shoreline with wanton abandon, sending up a shower of salty water into the air. White foam bubbled out at the edge of the sea water's reach, receding back into the blue mass that was the ocean as the sea prepared to pepper the shoreline with another barrage.

It was truly an amazing sight to watch as the gargantuan body of water was able to, without fail, send wave after wave crashing back against the sand of the shore with practiced ease. The melodious sound of the water rocking rhythmically back and forth against the sand was more than enough to lull someone into a tranquil sleep. However, for an inhabitant of this beautiful island setting, this everyday luxury was nothing more than a simple lunch break from normal island life in the settlements located in the centre of the island.

Despite the fact that they were on a secluded island in the middle of the ocean, with the nearest body of land being another massive island as well, the infrastructure of this island was impressively modern. It was a very sought out tourist destination where only the moderately well-off individuals would be able to experience the delights it had to offer. But having lived on this island for all his life; or for as long as he could remember anyways; this place was nothing special. Sure it had beautiful forests, top class hotels and resorts, and out-of-this-world views - or that's what it said in the brochures at least - but from his perspective, the forests were no more special than any other; the hotels and resorts were no more spectacular and luxurious than other spas and resorts that he'd seen. Granted, he'd never been off the island himself, but he had heard his fair share on hotels from other lands.

This place was, simply put... home. Home for one 12 years old Naruto Uzumaki, who was clad in a sleeveless vermilion vest with black stripes along the shoulders, a pair of blue trousers and blue shinobi sandals. He had messy blonde hair with a few stray bangs hanging across his forehead, along with 3 whisker marks on his cheeks that were noted as birth marks by many, a birth mark which he supposedly received from his clan. In his left ear lobe were 2 identical golden earrings, a characteristic which was shared by his best friend, and tied around his left bicep was a black bandana.

But considering this place home wasn't always the case for Naruto. Not until 4 to 5 years ago at least...

_(Flashback)_

_It was a blisteringly hot day out in Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)**. The sun was beating down upon the inhabitants of the island relentlessly, the only reprieve for Naruto being the small amounts of shade granted by some wandering stall owners who'd decided to set up shop in this section of town today; the section that was adjacent to the island's harbour. _

_An 8 year old Naruto was currently lounging underneath the table of a shop owner's stall. Naruto was clad in a browning white shirt with several rips and tears in the material, and was wearing a pair of blue shorts that were ripped and frilled at the edges with a stray hole in the material every now and then. He was wearing a pair of brown sandals which were lighter than what they should've been due to overexposure to the sun's harmful rays, and his hair was a much darker blonde than it should've been because of his inability to get a proper shower._

_Naruto was lying underneath the stall, said stall's owner being completely unawares of Naruto's current position. Had he known there was a small homeless boy using his stall as a pit stop, the consequences would have been severe. But fortunately for the blonde haired youth that was not the case. He was out of sight and out of mind at the moment in his current lodgings, soaking up as much of the shade as he could while he was still undiscovered. Him being spotted would lead to a lot of running and expending of unnecessary energy trying to get away, so remaining quiet and absolutely still was of utmost importance in his current situation. _

_He had been living on the streets of Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)** for as long as he could remember. He didn't know how he had managed to survive as an infant or if he ever had parents or someone that looked after him when he himself couldn't, but when living on the streets, you couldn't dwell on such things. There was neither the time nor the desire to know such trivial things when you lived on the streets. Every day was a constant struggle for survival; scavenging for food, finding roofed places to sleep for the night. The life of a homeless was an unfavourable one, a life that he'd become quite accustomed to. If he had to be blatantly honest with himself though, life on this island could have been a lot worse for him. He'd **seen** people a lot worse off than him. People without clothes, without food, covered in dirt and filth, bones visibly protruding out their bodies due to severe malnutrition and starvation... the list just went on. _

_But he discovered that he had an uncanny ability for moving around stealthily enough to get what he needed, when he needed it. Now, some people might call what he was referring to as stealing, but in the eyes of a homeless person and in his mind, he liked to refer to it as 'borrowing indefinitely'. Nevertheless, at the impressionable age of 8, he was an old hand at swiping small amounts of food, water, items of clothing; anything that he needed, he could get it with practised dexterity. _

_He was currently leaning against the leg of a table that was draped with a white table cloth, shielding him from the sunlight as well as the eyes of the stall owner who was sitting on a chair a couple meters ahead of him. From underneath the table cloth, he could keep a watchful eye on the legs of the owner, so if need be, he could turn tail and run. But he hadn't been caught in ages, so he wasn't counting on getting caught today. _

_He closed his eyes for a fraction of a second and let out a blissful sigh as he brought the small canteen of cool water in his hands up to his lips, a canteen that he had relieved from another store owner only an hour ago. He let the cold liquid slide down the back of his throat and took another few sips before twisting the lid back on and placing it in the backpack he had laying on the ground beside him. He sat his head back against the table leg and was about to close his eyes again when he heard the sound of feet and hooves crashing against the ground with shouts from the Tsuki no Kuni's **(Land of the Moon's)** Royal Guard and the shouts of a boy... a shout that he recognised as one of the other younger homeless boys he frequented with when 'borrowing' things from people. It was Shūhei!_

_Shūhei was a small 7 year old boy with teal-green eyes and dark brown hair, with his bangs falling naturally into a middle-parted curtain-type style. He also had a tan that was similar in comparison to Naruto's. He was wearing a pair of raggy brown trousers with a simple pair of brown shoes, and he had on a green shirt with string tassels at the collar. _

_Grabbing what little belongings he had and slapping his backpack over his shoulder, he scrambled out the back of the table cloth so as not to be seen by the owner and took off in a dash towards the area where he heard the shout of his good friend, swaying and swerving through the crowds of people as he kept up his relentless pace. 'What has he gotten himself into this time...' he idly wondered, sighing in his thoughts. He rounded a corner and was met with the sight of his homeless friend, Shūhei, lying on the ground propped up on his elbows and surrounded by guards, looking up fearfully at one of the King's men who was angrily glaring down at the boy from atop his horse with a hand gripping tightly on the hilt of his sword, preparing to draw said sword and strike down the boy for getting in his way. _

_A little ways behind Shūhei and the angry guard was the newly promoted captain of Tsuki no Kuni's **(Land of the Moon's)** military, a man named Korega, if he remembered correctly. He had been inducted the day before and there had been a massive ceremony, a ceremony where he and Shūhei had helped themselves to the delicacies of the island. It had been a good day to say the least. Behind the captain was the king of Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)** himself, Kakeru Tsuki, as well as his long time friend and minister Shabadaba, both of whom were riding on horseback and taking a tour through the towns of the island that day; for what reason he had no idea though._

_Naruto ignored them though and reached backwards into his bag frantically and pulled out the first thing his hands found, pulling out a fresh green pear that he had swiped that morning from a fruit cart. He looked back towards the commotion and saw that the guard was holding his sword above his head with the intent to kill his friend clearly etched on his face. Shūhei was looking up with wide, fearful eyes at his evident demise, trying to back away but only hitting his back against the legs of the other guards that were surrounding him. Naruto narrowed his eyes and drew his arm back before launching the fresh green fruit straight at the offending guard's face with as much strength as he could muster, hitting home with an audible thud. _

_The guard turned his hateful glare towards the newest pest, a blonde haired boy that looked to be homeless as well, roaring angrily as he made a lunge for the boy. "Get back here you little shit! You'll pay for this with your life! Guards! Seize them!"_

_Naruto ducked and weaved under the offending arm of the guard and grabbed Shūhei under his arms, pulling him to his feet and taking off in a mad dash towards a building with wooden beams jutting out the side of the wall. "Run Shūhei! Hurry, get up the wall! Now!" Shūhei only had time to blink before he was shoved forward and started running towards the building for his life, clambering up the wall using the wooden beams jutting out the side of it for support and footholds to reach the roof. _

_Once they reached the top, they rounded their very first corner and Naruto flung them both behind a small wall. "Stay here," Naruto whispered, pushing Shūhei into an enclosed space on top of the roof and making sure that he understood. With a nod from his friend, he ran out from behind the cover and got the guards' attention, springing away from Shūhei's direct vicinity and leading the guards in the opposite direction. "I'm over here you assholes! Try and keep up will ya?" he taunted mockingly with a grin on his face, turning tail and vaulting over a wall with refined ease._

_He landed on the other side of the high wall with an expert roll to comfort the high drop and navigated his way across the rooftops. He ran at top speed along the edges of the roof of each building he crossed before noticing that his tail wasn't letting up one bit, in fact... 'They're gaining on me!' he thought frantically, his eyes darting everywhere to look for an escape route. He came to the end of a rather high building and launched himself to the roof of a building that was 4 meters away from his position, landing with another expert roll and using the momentum to shoot forward at top speed once again, hoping that the guards would be too weighed down to make that last jump. _

_Glancing backwards, he noticed the absence of chasing guards, so with his immediate tail lost, he dropped back down to ground level by wall jumping between 2 closely built buildings, effectively slowing down his descent so as to avoid a mortal wound on the way down. A wound that would allow the guards to reach him and inflict Kami-knows how much pain for that stunt he had pulled with the pear. 'At least Shūhei is safe now...' he thought with relief, glancing back in the direction of his friend. Shūhei had taken a bit of a shine to Naruto back when they had first met, and although they didn't stay together or move around as a pair, they would meet up every day to get together and perform joint 'borrowing' sessions. Despite the situation he was in, he found himself snickering at the thought, momentarily reminiscing the few years passed with his good friend by his side. _

_That momentary lapse in concentration seemed to prove fatal however as a guard popped up in front of him and wrapped his arms around the smaller boy, using his much bigger build and weight to keep Naruto's small frame under control. That didn't deter Naruto though and he continued to thrash around frantically while kicking his legs out and flailing his arms, trying to throw the hulking guard off his body. "Let go of me you asshole! You're going to regret messing with me and my friend!"_

_The guard currently holding Naruto down chuckled evilly at his prisoner's expense, taking great amusement in the boy's continued attempts to free himself from his grasp. "Is that so? I'm trembling with fear," he sneered sarcastically, letting out a bellow of laughter as he made his way back to the market square where the rest of his men were. _

_Naruto growled dangerously and threw his head back, smashing his skull into the nose of the guard holding him down, sending blood gushing out of his now-paining appendage. "Ahh! You little fucker! I'll rip you to shreds!" The guard threw Naruto to the ground and enlisted the help of a few of his men to keep him down, successfully restraining the blonde haired 'fucker', as they took to calling him now, and forced the boy's arms out in front of him as the guard readied his sword to dismember the boy and forcefully remove both of his arms. He raised the sword up high and sent a malignant glare in the boy's direction, his brows turning down in a glare and his teeth exposing themselves as he growled. "In the King's name!" he started loudly before being cut off by a hand grabbing his raised arm. _

_He whipped his head around and was about to assault whoever had dared to interfere with his business before spotting the supposed interloper and immediately dropping himself to his knees along with his sword. "King Tsuki..." he began, only to be cut off again as the king raised his hand to silence him. _

_The king put his hand down again and looked over all the guards around him with a calculating gaze. "Is this what has become of the Royal Guard of this island? Have you all fallen so low, fallen so corrupt with your power that you are attempting to inflict harm unto those who you have been enlisted to protect? Attempting to inflict harm unto those who you have sworn an oath to shelter from harm's hand?" he asked rhetorically, glaring seriously at the guards who were supposed to be this island's protectors. He turned his gaze to his newly appointed captain and sent him a firm nod, silently telling him that he had a lot of work to do to whip the military back into shape. _

_The previous captain had been a deranged man, a psychopath who had instilled a sense of superiority amongst the current ranks of the military, something which the king had promoted captain Korega for in order to right the previous captain's wrongs. He knew what kind of man Korega was, and he had complete faith in his ability to fix this problem; the military's problem of thinking themselves superior to everyone around them being the very reason for the king's visit into the smaller towns of Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)** today, where the heart of the problem resided. _

_With a wave of his hand, he dismissed the guards and turned back down to the blonde boy who he had watched from when the start of the scuffle had begun right up until the end, watching as another brown haired boy came sidling up to the blonde one's side and helped him up. The boy the blonde had been protecting, he thought quickly. "What is your name boy?" asked the king curiously, carefully watching the emotions that played through the whiskered boy's defiant eyes. _

_The boy stood his ground in front of the king with a calm collectedness, the fire in his eyes burning brightly as he put a hand in front of the other younger boy protectively. He stared down at the boy's sparkling cerulean blue eyes; eyes that held no fear of defying the Royal Guard or the consequences that would arise from defying them in order to protect what was precious to him. The king regarded the boy with a high level of respect, admiring his unwavering determination to protect his friend, going so far as to throw his food at the guard, even though he was clearly starving if his small body was anything to go by. _

_Naruto stood his ground and shrugged his backpack, making sure it was attached properly in case he needed to run again and get the hell out of dodge with Shūhei in tow. He turned his calculating gaze up into the king's warm eyes and answered the question firmly. "Naruto Uzumaki," he stated before gesturing to the boy to his left. "And this is my friend, Shūhei." The younger brown haired boy nodded his head timidly towards the king, averting his gaze when the spotlight was pointed at him and hiding further behind Naruto's back. _

_The king nodded his head towards the boy and looked around for a moment before training his gaze back down on the two youths. "What of your parent's child?" The blonde boy's eyes played through a multitude of emotions and his determination wavered for a split second before his stronger forefront of defiance was back on his face. A split second; that was all the king needed though to realise that these 2 boys were in fact homeless and without parents, getting him to look down woefully. It was such a shame, the amount of people who resided in this town that were without homes and without families. This island was in dire need of better orphanage facilities, and he was planning to tackle this problem of homeless individuals head on. He was trying to create an island where everyone was equal, where everyone would have a somewhat decent standard of living. _

_He focused his eyes back on the 2 boys and his gaze softened. He reached inside his coat and pulled out a green pear, rolling it around in his fingers for a bit before tossing it down to the blonde boy and watching as he caught it with a momentary look of surprise on his face, recognising the pear as the one he had thrown earlier at the offending guard. _

_The king dismounted his horse and slowly walked towards the 2 boys, making sure not to make any sudden movements in case he scared them. They had just been assaulted by **his** Royal Guard, so he couldn't blame them if they were slightly jumpy and mistrusting of him. He stopped in front of them and knelt down, putting a hand on both boys' shoulders and looking into both of their eyes, giving them a warm smile. "I admire your courage and bravery to protect your friend, a daring trait which I can respect. You care for your friend's well being, and that is exactly what I would like to instil among the people of this island: a sense of compassion and benevolence."_

_He watched as they took in the information, slowly releasing a small amount of the tension in their muscles as they relaxed ever so slightly in the presence of their king. He looked out towards the ocean where the sun was descending behind the horizon, sending beams of orange sunlight glistening across the surface of the all-blue surrounding the island as he spoke softly. "I can see the kindness in your heart and your selfless-to-a-fault nature. It's spilling out at the seams, so-to-speak, and I would like to make an offer to you both," he half inquired, watching as they both slowly nodded to signify that they were both listening intently to the king standing before them. He squeezed reassuringly on their shoulders, being careful not to seem hostile in any way to frighten them. "I would like for you both to come and live with me and my family in my castle. You do not have to answer right away, but I will be returning tomorrow to this town to come and run an errand, and you can inform me of your decision then. I hope to see you 2 tomorrow," he spoke warmly, ruffling both of their heads and remounting his horse, turning around and proceeding out of the town. _

_The king saw something special in the 2 boys that day. Something which reminded him of what he was trying to accomplish with his reign as king. And Naruto and Shūhei had never looked back since..._

_(Flashback End)_

He smiled warmly as he thought back to the day when he and Shūhei had accepted the king's offer without really needing to decide whether they were going to accept the offer or not. They were homeless people that were forced to live off the street for as long as they could remember. They were offered a home to stay in where they would get food and clothes without the need to resort to steali-... 'borrowing indefinitely'. Naturally, they accepted the offer without batting an eye lid, and they had been better off ever since.

It hadn't taken them long at all to get settled in with the king's small family. His family consisted of his son and the next king-to-be of Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)** Michiru, and Michiru's son and the king's grandson Hikaru, who was the prince-to-be of Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)**. The boy Hikaru had been a bit of a spoiled brat when Naruto and Shūhei had first arrived at the castle, being very selfish in nature and extremely dependant on others. The same could be said about his father Michiru, who had picked up a significant amount of weight during their stay since the time when they first arrived in the castle.

But with Naruto and Shūhei being from the streets, they cherished everything that was now freely accessible to them, never once showing a shred of ungratefulness for anything that was put in front of them. The attitude that the 2 previously-homeless boys had upon being taken into the Tsuki's home rubbed off on Michiru and Hikaru, changing them for the better over the course of the 4 years that they'd up until now spent together in the castle.

They'd gotten extremely lucky that day when they were asked if they wanted to go and live in the castle with the king. They couldn't thank King Kakeru enough after taking them in. They were eternally indebted to him.

Naruto leaned forward from the tree he was leaning against and stretched his arms out far and wide, rejoicing in the feeling of his bones and joints popping back into place. He settled back down against the base of the palm tree he was resting against and closed his eyes as he just lied there and listened to the sounds of the crashing waves and the odd seagull that would come gliding overhead. 'It's peaceful, isn't it Kurama,' he said to the fox within his mind softly, sighing contentedly as he took in another breath of fresh sea air.

He heard the fox hum in agreement, feeling as he let out a content sigh of his own. Thinking of Kurama brought another memory back to him. Back to when he was still 7 years old and living on the streets. Back to the time when he had first met the fox that was living inside him...

_(Flashback)_

_DRIP_

_DRIP_

_DRIP_

_Naruto groaned irritably as the continued sound of water dripping on water sounded out around him, annoying him to no end. It was **way** too damn early for this. "Can somebody **please** close that damn tap!" he roared angrily, grunting in satisfaction when the sound finally ceased. He snuggled into himself a little further and tried to reacquaint himself with the sleep that was so rudely interrupted. _

_DRIP_

_DRIP_

_DRIP_

_Naruto growled again and shot up from his position with his fists balled and his eyes narrowed dangerously. "For the love of-..." He stopped midway through his growling though as he took that moment to look around at his surroundings, taking note of the fact that he wasn't where he thought he'd be. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep in the alleyway of 2 tall buildings, wrapped tightly with a blanket he'd 'borrowed'. Balling his fists up and rubbing them over his eyes several times to clear out the sleep, he opened his eyes wider this time and found himself sitting in the middle of what appeared to be an underground sewer system of sorts. _

_"Where am I?" he wondered out loud, listening as his voice echoed and bounced off of the walls around him and into the distance. He looked left, and then right, and then left again. There were pipes running along the walls going in both directions, and there were doors scattered across the walls every few meters. But to his left, there seemed to be a light emanating from somewhere in that direction, and he couldn't place this nagging feeling in the back of his mind that was urging him to go left. _

_With nothing to lose, he stood up slowly and trudged off to his left, following the light and his gut instinct as he passed through similar tunnels for what felt like an hour. He began wondering if maybe he'd taken a wrong turn back a few meters, but realised that he didn't know where **here** was, so even if he had taken a wrong turn, he wouldn't have the faintest idea. He couldn't help but think that maybe he was going in circles. Everything looked exactly the same, and he had turned left more times than he could count. In fact, thinking back, he had only been turning left this entire time! _

_He sighed irritably, ready to turn back around and attempt to retrace his steps before he happened upon a room that he hadn't come across yet. To put it bluntly, the room was massively huge, no, gi-fucking-normous. Like, gargantuanly gigantic. He didn't even know where he was pulling all those synonyms from. Hell, he didn't even know what a synonym was. _

_He shook his head and looked back out towards the room. The pipes from the passageways all seemed to converge in this one room. There were doors leading back into the passage ways at various other points around the room, with all the pipes jutting out the doorways leading straight into a hole in the roof. That wasn't even the strange thing. Yeah, despite being in a sewer with no recollection of how he got here, it seemingly got stranger._

_Ahead of him, spanning the entire length of the room and extending all the way to the ceiling, was a massive, red gate. It was a pretty dull-reddish colour, with patterns adorning the sides of the gate. In the middle was a huge piece of paper; huge as far as pieces of paper went; with the kanji for 'Seal' on it, he read. 'At least I think it says that,' he thought to himself, walking closer towards the massive gates. He'd never really gotten taught how to read, but could always just... do it, somehow. _

_He froze in his tracks though when the feeling of warm air was blasted into his entire body, and a deep, gruff voice sounded out from behind the bars of the gate. He absently wandered if perhaps that wasn't a cell in front of him, but due to the situation he was in, he couldn't care less at the moment. **"Ah, so my jailor has finally decided to pay me a visit, has he..."**_

_Naruto's body screamed at him to run, to get the hell away from the bars of the gate, but his curiosity was keeping him rooted. Or was that fear. He didn't know, but he liked to think that it was the former preventing him from running away from whatever was lurking beyond those bars in the shadowy depths of the cell. "W-what do you mean, jailor?" he asked timidly, cursing himself for his squeaky voice. "Where are we, and who are you?" he let out a little more forcefully, patting himself on the back for that momentary bravery. _

_The voice seemed to ignore him though and disregard his questions, asking another one of his own. **"Why do you not run, boy? Is it courage that keeps you planted where you stand, the courage to stand up to me? Or perhaps it is just sheer stupidity. Curiosity is another likely possibility, although I suspect that it is none of the above,"** the voice finished softly, letting out another breath of air that ruffled Naruto's clothes and hair. **"My presence usually instils fear, so... does fear keep you rooted to that spot, fear of what you cannot see, fear of what you might find if you decide to come too close, or fear of what might happen if you decided to flee?"**_

_Naruto remained standing in his spot, listening intently to the voice speaking from within the shadows. Who did this person think he was, talking down to him like this, like he was somehow superior to him! It reminded him of the guards that patrolled around this section of Tsuki. He balled his fists at his side and took a courageous step forward, at the same time throwing out his fist. "I'm not afraid of you or anything else, you hear me?! Now, where are we, and who are you?! Answer me damn it!"_

_The chamber was quiet for several more moments, nothing but the sound of his heavily beating heart filling his ears. After what felt like an eternity, the voice finally sounded out again, but it let out an amused chuckle. _

_The Kyūbi looked out towards the boy from within the shadows of his cell and regarded him carefully. It seemed that he had been in stasis for the first few years of his jailor's life, but looking into the memories of this boy, he hadn't been in Konoha where he thought he'd end up. They were somehow transported to the island of Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)**, and his jailor had been living off the streets for the totality of his life. It seemed that nobody truly had any idea what had happened to the boy, and by proxy, himself either. _

_Taking all that into account, as well as the seal that was in place and who had put it there to begin with, he resigned himself to the fact that he was not going to be freeing himself from this seal anytime soon, if ever. This particular seal was designed to help the boy wield his chakra, and his chakra was slowly mixing with the boy's and merging into one. He wasn't going to be able to break out of this seal without killing himself in the process, and when this boy died, so would he, so with that in mind, he made a decision. _

_He looked back down at the small boy standing defiantly in front of his cage and, despite the situation, the fox smirked to himself. This was going to be fun, he thought amusingly. He let out another large breath of warm air and laid himself down on top of his hands. **"To answer your questions boy, this place all around you, this... sewer of sorts, is the inner recesses of your mind, or more easily known as your mindscape."**_

_"So this is my mind? Why is it a sewer? And what am I doing inside my mind?! Am I dead?!" Naruto slowly started panicking, looking around frantically and clutching at parts of his body to reassure himself that he was still, in fact, alive, holding his palm over his chest to try and feel his heartbeat. _

_The Kyūbi huffed annoyingly and let out another large breath of air, effectively getting the boy's attention once again. **"Be quiet boy, you are making my head hurt. Now, if I may continue, we are currently inside your mindscape; and no you are not dead; and lastly, I am under the impression that you could change this sewer setting if you so wished. Now, to answer your other question, I am..."** He paused there for a second, thinking carefully on the words he should use. He had to remind himself that he was only talking to a 7 year old, so he had to muster up what little patience he possessed and spoke again, moving forward into the light so that the boy could see him in all his orange-furred and nine-tailed glory. **"... I am your conscience. Yes, that's it: conscience."** He patted his back with one of his tails and watched as the boy slowly started to relax before his eyes widened at the sight of him. They returned to their normal disposition after a while though and he took on a thoughtful look before he nodded to himself. _

_"Hm, that makes sense," he agreed easily with a nod of his head, watching as a massive sweat drop formed on the giant fox's head. Children were too innocent, he chuckled. "Sooo... what's a conscience? And are all Conscience's foxes?"_

_The almighty Kyūbi palmed his face, shaking his head exasperatedly as he ran his hand down his face. **"Never mind the details behind it, just know that I am your conscience, and I am a giant fox. I can see, hear, feel, smell and taste everything that you can, unless you decide to purposefully shut me out, which will come in handy as you grow older."**_

_Naruto nodded his head at all this information, deciding to take a seat as he listened to it all. "Okay, I understand Conscience. So do you just sit here in this sewer all day? That doesn't sound like too much fun at all."_

**_"You have no idea," _**_the Kyūbi deadpanned, beginning to find the boy's name for him a tad annoying. **"But, and I stand under correction, as I said earlier, I surmise that you can change this sewer if you so wish. All you have to do is think of something else, and it should change accordingly."**_

_Naruto nodded his head and took on a thoughtful pose, sticking his tongue out absently and holding his hand beneath his chin. His eyes snapped open and he clicked his fingers. "I think I've got it." He took on a look of immense concentration and tried as hard as he could to change up his mindscape. He watched in fascination as the floor within the room morphed into long, green grass, and the walls and area all around them changed into a light yellow colour. The gates were still present, and the numerous doors still leading out towards the passages from earlier were still located all around the room. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and turned back towards the giant fox. "Sorry Conscience, but this was the best that I could do."_

_The Kyuubi didn't say anything at first, simply using this time to wriggle his fingers and paws into the grass below. **'Who would think that I would miss something as trivial as grass; especially as much as this.'** He bared his fangs in what Naruto assumed to be a smile before the fox looked down at him again with a calm expression. **"This will do boy. And stop calling me conscience. It's grating on my last nerve..." **he growled lowly._

_Naruto glared chidingly back up at the fox and crossed his arms over his chest, huffing in annoyance. "Fine, but then stop calling me 'boy', and call me Naruto. I have a name too you know." Naruto's eyes glazed over for a second as he processed what he said before he looked back up at the fox with a pondering frown. "So what's your name then if it's not Conscience?"_

_The Kyūbi remained silent for a long while yet again, taking note of how patient the usually-fidgety boy was remaining. He let out another sigh before crossing its massive arms over one another and laying its head on its arms, closing his eyes at the same time. **"You can call me... Kurama, Naruto,"** the giant fox finally answered, allowing Naruto to nod his head before forcefully ejecting him out of his mind. He'd had enough talking for the day. Now he needed to get back to what he enjoyed most when confined to the stomach of a human. Sleeping. _

_(Flashback End)_

That was a good day for him. He found another friend in his 'conscience', and although he didn't really understand why there was a giant 9 tailed fox stuck in his mind, he just shrugged it off like everything else he didn't really understand. He knew it wasn't his conscience, but he was there nevertheless, so he made sure to keep him company every now and again. He supposed it could get pretty boring up inside his head. **_'You have no idea how boring it gets inside this empty abyss that is your mind,'_** a voice sounded out sarcastically, snickering in the recesses of Naruto's mind.

'Ah, so you've got a sense of humour now. I'll remember that.' His ears perked up though at the familiar sound of sand crunching beneath feet, prompting him to crack an eye lid and turn his head to the direction of the sound, only for him to close his eyes once again and continue to listen to ocean.

The crunching of sand continued for a little longer before stopping a couple meters away from him. "I thought I might find you here," came the voice of his best friend Shūhei as he took up a spot against a tree beside his best friend. Shūhei was wearing a short sleeved beige coloured shirt with string tassels at the collar that was similar in appearance to his shirt from when he was younger, as well as a maroon sash about his waist. He wore brown trousers and brown ninja sandals, with 2 golden earrings in his left ear lobe as well as a black bandana around his neck.

Naruto gave a soft chuckle as he continued to take in his surroundings using all his senses sans sight. "I'd be a little worried if you didn't know where to find me after all these years," came the friendly reply as he and he his best friend sat in an amiable silence for the next several minutes.

There was a crunching of sand again as Shūhei readjusted his position and turned towards his friend. "You know why I'm here don't you," he asked with a sigh as he made to stand up. Not getting any response from his friend, he got down on his haunches and snapped his fingers in front of the blonde's face a couple of times. "Hey, wake up Naruto. The lunch break is almost over and we've got to get back to the Getsugakure **(Hidden Moon)** Academy which is pretty far away. Hey, are you even listening to me!" he finally snapped, watching as his best friend continued to blatantly disregard him. His face turned into a scowl before his lips turned upwards in a devious smirk. He lifted his foot above Naruto and planted it straight into his abdomen, getting a satisfying growl from his best friend, prompting him to smirk victoriously.

Naruto looked up at his best friend in annoyance before his lips also upturned into a devious smirk. He quickly grabbed both of Shūhei's ankles and pulled them forward, sending his friend into the sand onto his backside. Naruto chuckled at his friend's expense and rolled away to avoid any backlashes from his brown haired companion. "Payback's a bitch Shūhei, how many times do I need to tell you before you get it through that thick skull of yours," he shot victoriously, jumping to his feet and throwing on his backpack.

Shūhei look defiantly up at his best friend, but for the life of him he just couldn't stay angry at the blonde, and his lips twitched into a smile before he started laughing as well. "Yeah, yeah, just help me up will ya."

Naruto leapt over to his friend and grabbed his friend's extended right hand, pulling him back to his feet as they both dusted themselves off. Naruto looked in the direction of the Academy and his face morphed into a challenging smirk. "How's about we have a little race," he began, glancing backwards to his friend, only to find him not there anymore. His head shot forward again and he grinned upon spotting his friend already racing off into the distance.

"What's taking so long Naruto?" Shūhei shouted back rhetorically, his smirk glinting cockily in the afternoon sun. "At this rate, you'll never have a chance at beating me," he taunted cheekily, turning forward again and shooting off back towards the Academy at full speed.

Naruto grinned mischievously and took off after his friend. "Oh, we'll see about that," he murmured to himself, leaping from tree to tree as he dashed after his friend and brought his right hand up into the ram seal.

XxX

"How did you beat me?!" exclaimed an out of breath Shūhei, slumping down with his hands on his knees as he turned his head up towards Naruto with narrowed eyes. "You didn't fucking cheat by any chance, did you?" he questioned dangerously, watching his friend's facial expressions carefully.

Naruto crossed his arms and turned away from his friend with a grin etched across his face. "Pfft. **_Me_**, cheat? I would **_never_**..." he answered overdramatically, turning around with his hand on his chest and a facial expression that was so alien on his face that Shūhei almost cracked out laughing at the sheer stupidity of it. Naruto returned to his usual demeanour and thrusted his left hand into his pocket while curling his right hand into a fist and buffing his nails on his shirt smugly. "We're ninja, Shūhei. Everything goes in the world of shinobi. We specialise in the art of deception, so there's no such thing as cheating in this shinobi world."

Shūhei studied his friend's behaviour for a couple seconds with narrowed eyes before they widened and he pointed accusingly at the blonde beside him. "You finally mastered that new jutsu, didn't you? The _Shunshin no Jutsu **(Body Flicker Technique)**_. That's why you're looking so smug," he finished knowingly, watching as his best friend casually shrugged with a shit-eating grin on his face. Yeah. That was definitely the reason.

"That's a secret for me to know, and for you to... never find out," he answered cryptically while rubbing under his nose proudly, trying his best not to look abashed at being called out. Yeah. It was painfully obvious to Shūhei that he had mastered his new jutsu. Naruto was too much of a sucker for jutsu to hide it.

Shūhei shrugged casually and turned back to the Academy upon hearing the ringing of the bell. "Come on, time to go to class," he said, turning to the Academy and heading off to the front door with his blonde brother in all but blood hot on his heels.

Naruto looked wistfully towards the building of the Academy, sighing softly as they entered through the front doors. '5 more months, and then we're finally finished with the Academy. This really couldn't have come any sooner...'

He had been waiting for this moment for the last 2 years now when he had passed the initial test to decide whether a person could become a ninja or not. The Getsugakure **(Hidden Moon)** Ninja Academy operated a lot differently when compared to Academy's from other hidden villages. Because Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)** did not have its own hidden village, rather opting for a military comprised of non-shinobi, the system to become a ninja was slightly altered.

The Getsugakure **(Hidden Moon)** Ninja Academy was, at first, a 2 year endeavour where all attendants would receive education equivalent to that of a 4 year course at any other Ninja Academy, such as Konoha's Academy for example. After learning 4 years worth of information in only 2 years, the attendants would take their graduation exam early to determine whether they could in fact become ninja; and if they could not pass the test, they would either end their career then and there, or be transferred to the island's military forces.

Naruto was still thankful that during his ninjutsu test he had only been asked to perform the _Kawarimi no Jutsu **(Substitution Technique)**_ and the _Henge no Jutsu **(Transformation Technique)**_ - he was still, to this day, unable to perform a regular _Bunshin no Jutsu **(Clone Technique)**_. Why? He had absolutely no idea. But he couldn't do it, so the fact that he wasn't asked to do it in his exam was a Godsend.

But back to the Academy, after they graduated at the 2 year mark, they would continue training for 2 years within the Academy, amassing their skills and techniques, and then once they were finished at the end of the 4 year period, they would go straight into the Chūnin Exams. Due to the lack of shinobi in Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)**, they didn't have the luxury of being able to form teams with 3 genin and 1 jōnin, not enough that it would be beneficial to Getsugakure **(Hidden Moon)** anyway. So they would send them straight into the Chūnin Exams for experience and depending on their results, would promote them.

Tsuki had an abundance of chūnin - however much an abundance was in a land with no hidden village - nevertheless, that was the procedure, and after the graduates had completed 3 and a half years here, they would be split into their 3 man cells for the last 6 months so that they could get accustomed to their teammates. Only the 2 very best teams of the year would get sent to the Chūnin Exams with each team accompanied by one of the few jōnin on the island. The rest would become genin and work around the island to earn their ranks or would take the next Chūnin Exams.

There were only 14 people in his class, so the teacher had explained that one team would only have two members and would be given a third member by the host village upon arriving at the Chūnin Exams, if they were chosen. But the two man team would also leave a month earlier so that they could get to train with their third member and get comfortable as a team before the actual exams started. That two man team was comprised of himself and Shūhei, and they were beyond relieved that they were together in a team. They already worked so well together and knew the other like the back's of their hands.

Naruto blinked back into focus and stared ahead at the board, focusing back in on the instructor's words. It was so easy for him to just dose off slightly during class, but his ears were always open, so he never missed much. "... and each chakra nature is superior to one and inferior to another. You can see what I mean by looking at this diagram on the board. Now, we'll be starting you all off on your elemental manipulation for the last 6 months here, so I'll be calling you up one by one to the front of the class so that we can see what chakra natures you all have. Each shinobi has only 1 elemental affinity, unless of course you have a kekkai genkai, then you will have 2 elemental affinities. Although each shinobi only has 1 chakra affinity, you can still train yourself in the other 4 elements; however, progress in elements that aren't your affinity will take much longer to learn and even longer to master. Let me just warn you in advance that it's highly unlikely that any of you will be able to master your elements by the end of your time here, but because our curriculum is of a higher standard, you will be started on them regardless."

She let the information sink in before grabbing a stack of small papers from her drawer and placing them on her desk. "You just take one of these pages and channel a bit of your chakra into, and then we'll be able to see your chakra natures. Now, first up, Yuki..."

Naruto tuned the instructor out once again and turned his head towards the window, where there was a perfect view of the glistening ocean, the rays of the sun sparkling off of the sea's surface. 'I wonder what my chakra nature will be?' he thought absentmindedly, twirling his pen in between his fingers as he stared blankly towards the front of the class.

"...-ruto. Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto shook his head quickly and refocused his eyes, ignoring the snickering from the rest of the class as he got up and trudged towards the front of the class.

"Sorry sensei, I must've just dosed off there for a second y'know," Naruto said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head with his hand embarrassedly. He picked up a piece of chakra paper and held it between his thumb and index finger. "So I just channel some chakra into this page?" His sensei nodded her head and he focused his eyes back onto the piece of paper, channelling as small an amount of chakra as he could manage. He watched on with interest as the page split in two, and he turned his head back towards his sensei.

"Hm. That's very interesting. A wind natured chakra affinity. Not impossible for someone from Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)**, just very, **_very_** rare. There are currently no other wind users on this island, but we have plenty of scrolls that you can make use of to practice with, so don't worry. Now, Shūhei, please come forward. It's your turn," the sensei said, handing Naruto a scroll on the basics of Fūton **(Wind Release)** before he went back to his seat.

Naruto slowly walked back to his desk as he pondered on his newly found out element and opened the scroll he had been given, skimming through the information from within. 'Fūton **(Wind Release)** 'ey? The so-called battle element; most common to shinobi from Sunagakure **(Hidden Sand)**; superior to Raiton **(Lightning Release)**; inferior to Katon **(Fire Release)**. Combines brute force and precision to deal cutting and slashing damage. Can be used to augment blades and weapons by sharpening them with wind chakra... I think I'm gonna enjoy this chakra nature. It's perfect for my weapons of choice.' He grinned happily and turned back to the front of the class to see what Shūhei's element would be, watching in interest as his chakra paper became damp with water.

"... water natured chakra affinity. Another very useful nature, not very uncommon among Getsugakure **(Hidden Moon)** shinobi. Here is a scroll for you. You may take your seat again. Next up is..." Naruto tuned her out and waited for his friend to return to the seat next to him, seeing the massive smile that his friend was sporting. Suiton **(Water Release)** was a very versatile chakra nature, something that would be a great addition to Shūhei's arsenal. He couldn't wait for the Chūnin Exams. He had never felt more ready in his life. He was sure that he and Shūhei would be able to make it in. He was top student with Shūhei right behind him. They were something of prodigy's according to many of the instructors at the Academy. Apparently, Getsugakure **(Hidden Moon)** hadn't seen students as talented and skilful as himself and Shūhei in the history of Tsuki. "We're gonna win this thing this year, Shūhei," Naruto said abruptly, still staring out the window towards the ocean.

"Hm?" questioned Shūhei, looking oddly towards his best friend's sombre look. Shūhei waited several more seconds before Naruto turned towards him and held out his fist.

"We're gonna win the Chūnin Exams this year Shūhei," he repeated seriously, keeping his fist extended as he stared into the teal-green's of his best friend. "We're gonna put this island back on the map. Getsugakure **(Hidden Moon)** has been regarded as a fake hidden village for too long. We're gonna win this, and that's a promise. I never go back on my word."

Shūhei stared intently into his best friend's cerulean-blue's and smiled warmly at his brother-in-arms, extending his arm so they met in a fist bump. "I'll hold you to it, Naruto."

Naruto nodded his head appreciatively towards his good friend before he turned back towards the window and stared out at the horizon in the distance. 'I wonder how strong the people out there are. I've never been off of this island, so I can only imagine how strong the people out there can be. But I'll be stronger. Shūhei and I will both be stronger. I swear it on my nindo.'

* * *

_Meanwhile, in Konohagakure no Sato **(Village Hidden in the Leaves)**..._

* * *

It was a typical afternoon in the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The sun was in the middle of the sky, casting its rays across the entire expanse of land that was Konoha. The clouds were going along their merry way, floating aimlessly in the sky with the odd bird flying in and out view as it swerved through the fluffy white phenomena.

The four heads of the previous Hokage were all watching over the village that they all held so dear during their time as leader, watching over the many villagers and shinobi as they went about their daily lives, manning their stalls and carts in the market square, doing business as usual.

It was yet another peaceful day in the village, a peace that had lasted for the past 12 years since the fateful day of the Kyūbi attack. The village was finally fully recovered, with buildings being fully rebuilt and the mental state of all the villagers finally able to rest easy as the threat of total annihilation was finally receding to the backs of their minds.

This was not the case however for the current leader of the village, Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen. He exhaled softly and blew out a wisp of smoke, closing his eyes softly as he brought his signature pipe back to his lips and chewed absentmindedly on the end. His thoughts were currently drifting towards all of his failures in his life as of late, trailing back to when one of his prized pupils turned rogue and left the village after performing illegal experiments. It wasn't the fact that his student had turned rogue that was the failure; rather, it was the fact that he couldn't muster the strength to end his student's life when he had the chance to prevent him from continuing his experiments. His momentary weakness had allowed him to run free, and who knew what he was getting up to in his spare time now.

Then his thoughts drifted a little bit further into the future, remembering the tragedy that took place 12 years ago. His village had fallen low, lower than he had ever seen it, but like all previous times, the village had endured, and their will of fire had persevered and allowed them to bounce back better than ever. It was not without its losses though, which lead to his current thoughts. The death of his successor turned predecessor, the death of the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato.

Perhaps one of his biggest failures in his eyes. Minato was a long time friend and splendid shinobi, a once in a lifetime genius. Sarutobi always regretted not taking his place as martyr of the village that night. Minato and his beloved wife were both killed as they battled it out to rid the village of the Kyūbi, which they did. Minato's plan was to seal the demon into his new born child, his only son, Naruto. However, the boy was never found, and all traces of the Kyūbi were lost. Both the boy's parents had died so that he could live on, and in an anti climax, he was most likely killed as well.

His heart wept for that family. A family of shinobi who sacrificed everything to protect the will of fire. To protect everyone within the Leaf Village. Sarutobi had been ready to die that day, ready to join his wife Biwako in the afterlife, who had passed on during the chaos of it all. But he was denied that privilege. And he was the only person qualified at the moment to run the village, and with no immediate successors at the moment, he was denied the chance to be reunited with his beloved wife. He was oh se ready to join his wife in the afterlife, but for the sake of the village, he had to keep on going, he had to hold onto what little life was left in him to find a suitable successor for Konohagakure no Sato **(Village Hidden in the Leaves). **

He clenched his fist and smashed it down on the top of his desk, his body racking with silent sobs as he let himself show a miniscule amount of weakness, letting himself show his true age in this time when he was completely alone, his office devoid of any ANBU. 'I miss you Biwako. More than you could imagine...' He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to be greeted with the sight of his deceased wife, standing behind him with an ethereal glow about her. She just stood there with a comforting look in her eyes, squeezing comfortingly on his shoulder as she mouthed the words 'I love you' to her husband. He placed his free hand over her one resting on his shoulder, only for it to pass right through and for her image to slowly fade out of view.

He sat in silence for a moment longer before steeling himself back to his Hokage mask, mustering up the strength to keep on going and to remain strong, for the villager's sake's. He was doing this for all the occupants of the village, for the sacrifice that Minato, his wife and his child had made for the village. Then and only then, could he reunite with his wife, he silently reminded himself. He could continue to push through for a little longer before he would finally be allowed to join her. He turned to his door when a knock sounded out and cleared his throat, dusting himself clean of the non-existent dirt out of habit before readjusting himself in his chair and lacing his fingers together in front of him. "Enter."

The door opened and closed and in walked the very familiar face of a man who he was very fond of. "Ah, Iruka-kun. What can I do for you this fine afternoon?" Iruka was an average built man of average height, with long brown hair tied up into a pony tail. He wore the standard Konoha uniform and had his hitai-ate tied around his forehead. He was an instructor at the Konohagakure **(Hidden Leaf)** Ninja Academy and a fine chūnin of the Hidden Leaf Village.

Iruka stopped in front of the Hokage's desk and pulled out the file located underneath his arm, placing it on the desk. "Good afternoon, Hokage-sama. I just came by to drop off the list of this year's Academy graduates and team selections for you to revise and review. They're a promising crop of students, and I believe they will go forward to do great things for the village one day," Iruka spoke proudly, smiling confidently in his words. Teaching was something he had a passion for and something he truly enjoyed. This was his way of protecting the village, training next year's generation to be able to protect the village with their own hands. This was his will of fire.

Sarutobi smiled warmly at Iruka and listened intently to the heart-felt pride in his words. Iruka was like this every year, taking great pride in his crop of students. He was gentle soul despite his rough childhood, and the Sandaime couldn't be more proud of the man he'd become. "Thank you Iruka-kun. I trust your judgement and faith in your students. I have no doubt that they will become the future leaders of this village."

He reached down and opened up the file, glancing over the names and teams that were set up before one specific team caught his name. "Team 7; Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke and Sai; Team Leader Hatake Kakashi," he murmured, taking on a nostalgic and almost regretful look that did not go unnoticed by Iruka, but the chūnin wisely didn't pry. 'This was the team that young Naruto would've been a part of. I can still remember the prideful look on Kakashi-kun's face when he was told that he'd be the teacher for his sensei's son. He was truly looking forward to becoming his mentor...'

He smiled fondly at the memory and looked back up to see Iruka looking down at him with concern. "Don't worry about me Iruka-kun. Now, if that is all..." he trailed off, watching as Iruka nodded and left the office, leaving Sarutobi to his thoughts once more. 'Best get started on organising this year's Chūnin Exams. We are hosting after all, and there's going to be a lot of competition and invites to send out. Kumogakure **(Hidden Cloud)** is back on good terms with us after the successful peace treaty years ago, so we can count for their participation. There will be teams from Kusagakure **(Hidden Grass)**, Sunagakure **(Hidden Sand)**, Kirigakure **(Hidden Mist)**, Amegakure **(Hidden Rain)**, Takigakure **(Hidden Waterfall)**, a new village Otogakure **(Hidden Sound)** and last but not least, Getsugakure **(Hidden Moon)**. This is going to be one of the biggest Chūnin Exams in the history of this prestigious event. It's going to be a spectacle like none other... I'm sure of it.'

* * *

_Back in Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)**, 2 months later..._

* * *

THUD THUD THUD

THUD THUD THUD

THUD THUD THUD

"Woah Naruto-niisan, that's three bulls eye's in a row, in **_each_** target," exclaimed a 9 year old Hikaru Tsuki, the son of prince Michiru and grandson of King Kakeru as he lowered his binoculars and looked ahead at the archery targets with stars in his eyes. He was a young bespectacled boy with short black hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a white outfit with blue, triangular trimming held closed by a simple sash. He also had a pair of brown boots and pants on with a quiver of arrows strapped to his back. "And that last target is over 45 meters away! Do you think I can start using real arrows too Naruto-niisan?" he pleaded, the pupils of his eyes dilating to astronomical proportions as he performed the dubbed, 'puppy-dog-pout'.

Naruto lowered his recurve bow and glanced down at the small boy to his side, watching as he stood there with his hands placed together in a pleading manner. Naruto smiled down at the 9 year old and ruffled his hair, getting a small blush of embarrassment out of the little boy. "Of course," Naruto started, kneeling down in front of the boy and putting his hands on his shoulders. "But only once you get a little older, okay? I don't want you to hurt yourself or to try something you're not ready for." Naruto stood up again and gestured to the smaller target that was a little closer than his ones. "Now, if you can hit that target's bull's eye three times like I did, then I'll show you how far I've come with my elemental manipulation training."

"Stop using your elemental training to motivate poor Hikaru," muttered Shūhei from the sidelines as he hung upside from a tree in the garden they were all currently in, practising his tree walking. He'd just about mastered it and was giving it one final go about to make sure he could stay there for the intended time. "Why don't you help him with his _Kyūjutsu **(Art of Archery)**_ for a change?"

Naruto looked to his left and up into the tree and gave his best friend a chiding look. "But he likes to see our elemental training, you know that," he responded, strapping his bow back onto his back. "And he's already about as good with a bow and arrow as I am. The only thing that's holding him back is his age. Don't forget who introduced me to using a bow and arrow in the first place." Hikaru blushed deeply under the praise and trained his gaze downwards, watching as a couple of ants dragged a crumb of food with them.

Shūhei dropped down from the tree by cutting off the chakra to the soles of his feet and flipped around so that he landed on his feet. He patted himself down and made his way towards Naruto and Hikaru, stopping by the small boy and ruffling his hair as well. "Nevertheless, I want to see how far you've come as well. I have to manipulate the water in a bucket into a whirlpool by only using my chakra for 30 minutes, and so far I've only managed about 19 minutes. I feel like I'm going backwards, it's so frustrating. So hopefully watching you crash and burn and seeing your frustration will help ease mine," he grinned happily, perfectly content with using his best friend's plights to improve his own mood.

"Well then Hikaru, now you've got to hit all 3 bulls eye's for you, and for Shūhei, so no pressure," Naruto said off handedly, leaning back against the tree and dropping down to his rear, making himself comfortable for the show.

Hikaru gulped audibly and turned back towards the target in front of him, a visible bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face as the target seemed to zoom out and move further and further away from him. He reached for the bow on his back and pulled out one of his suction-cupped arrows, readying it for the first shot. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, going through the tips that Naruto-niisan had instructed him to go through when he was feeling slightly nervous. 'Come on Hikaru, you can do this!' he berated himself, taking another deep breath. He faced down his target, loaded the arrow and pulled the string semi-taut, raising the bow to shoulder height and taking aim. He pulled the string back fully until his hand was resting under his jaw bone and the string was brushing his face, and with one more intake of breath, he let the arrow fly, taking pride in himself with the familiar sound of his arrow making contact with the target, and grinning despite himself when he noticed it was a bulls eye.

But he wasn't done yet, and repeated the previous process with grace and fluidity, hitting the bulls eye dead on with his next two shots. Being an archer, there was nothing more satisfying than hearing the sound of your arrow hitting its mark, and it was a sound that he really loved to hear. Back to reality, he turned his body back around and smirked at the form of his brotherly figure sitting against the tree with his eyes widening a fraction of an amount, before he resumed his previous stature and grabbed a leaf off of the ground.

"It would seem that you have followed through with your half of the bet. So let me follow through with mine." He had been practising every waking moment that he could on the first step of his elemental manipulation for 2 months now, and he was keen to see how far he had come as well. So he placed the leaf in his left hand and covered it with his right before taking on a look of immense concentration and willing his wind natured chakra to cut the leaf. 'Make my chakra as sharp and thin as possible and cut it with my chakra from both sides. Sharply and finely, sharply and finely...' he repeated this mantra in his head and then opened his eyes, opening the palms of his hand and grinning ecstatically. Inside his hand was a fully cut-down-the-middle leaf, both halves resting in a different hand.

He jumped to his feet and shouted out excitedly, Shūhei standing beside the tree with a baffled expression on his face and Hikaru with a confused one. He wasn't really sure what happened, but Naruto had put a leaf in his hand, then covered it, and then when he opened it again the leaf was cut in two.

Naruto slid to a stop in front of Shūhei and grabbed both his shoulders, shaking him as he spoke enthusiastically. "Do you know what this means? This means that now I can start learning Fūton **(Wind Release)** jutsu's! If I want to really master my wind nature, I still need to find a waterfall and cut it in half with my chakra, but until I do, I just have to settle with this. The second part's really only when you want to start making your own jutsu, but I guess I'll have to wait for you to master your Suiton **(Water Release)** jutsu to make a waterfall for me."

Shūhei and Hikaru just blinked, then blinked again, and blinked one more time before Shūhei shook his head free from the confusion and pat his friend on the shoulder. "Well done you S.O.B, as soon as my first step for water manipulation is done, consider yourself getting a waterfall," he replied cockily, turning to Hikaru and Naruto and then gesturing towards the castle. "Come on guys, let's get back inside. It's getting late, and supper should be done about now."

Naruto and Hikaru nodded, both of them quickly fetching their arrows and depositing them back into their quivers before strapping on their bows and heading towards the castle. '3 more months...' Naruto reminded himself, thinking to the end of their Academy days. 'We're almost there.'

* * *

_Naruto's room, later that night..._

* * *

Naruto hobbled back into his room with only a towel wrapped tightly around his waist, impeding his movements greatly. He had just finished with a much needed shower, so he threw on his pyjamas which consisted of light blue shorts that came up to above his knees and a light grey vest, which showed a small little silver key he had attached to a chain around his neck. He chucked his wet towel into one of the corner's of his room, a corner that had been self proclaimed as the 'dirty corner', and took a quick glance around his room. His bedroom was fairly small to put it simply. When he and Shūhei had first arrived at the castle, they had offered to give them much bigger rooms, as well as offering to allow them to share a room. But never having had his own room before, he opted for a small one that he could have all to himself, something which had Shūhei wanted as well.

He had a queen sized double bed that was pushed into the back corner of his room with a balcony on the opposite side of the room with a glass sliding door, giving him a great view of the rest of the island and the ocean beyond that. Up against the wall perpendicular to the sliding door was his desk and work bench. His desk was mainly used for all his schoolwork, but as the schoolwork got less important and the Academy began focusing more on teaching student's taijutsu styles as well as ninjutsu and basic fūinjutsu, it was now more scrolls than anything else.

His work bench was where he would keep all of his shinobi gear, which consisted of his recurve bow, his quiver which was filled all the way with 50 arrows, his kunai and shuriken pouch that were both filled to the brim, and any and all spare arrows he owned shoved neatly in a drawer of the bench. He had another pouch that was filled with other supplementary equipment such as smoke bombs, food pills, a nice stack of explosive notes and a couple of ready-made storage scrolls. Being an archer though, if it ever came up that he would be put in a close combat situation, he had his favourite weapons - his dual trench knives. They had been given to him as a present by Captain Korega on his tenth birthday as a graduation present for completing the beginning stages of becoming a shinobi.

He liked the idea of them though, because being an archer would give people the impression that he was a weak close range fighter, where in actual fact, he was far from it. He was more of a close range fighter to begin with, and the bow was just something he had taken a liking to in order to circumvent his lack of long range offensive techniques. Something he'd been dying to try out with his trench knives though was to channel his wind natured chakra through them to increase their destructive force and cutting power like the Fūton **(Wind Release)** scroll had said. Although, it said it was fairly difficult and would probably take him a while to accomplish, but that didn't deter him. He was determined to become the best, so he couldn't let something small like that get him down.

Besides the very decorative work bench with all of his ninja 'goodies', his room was pretty plain and bland, with the only real decorative work in his room being the framed map of the elemental nations that took up most of his back wall behind his bed, and the wall opposite his desk and workbench that was filled with several framed pictures of him and Shūhei. Among those were other pictures of him and the rest of the king's family. He wasn't sure what to call the relationship between himself, Shūhei and the king's family. He wasn't sure if he could call them an actual family, with Michiru being his uncle, Hikaru his little brother and Kakeru his grandfather. Whether he could call them those things or not, they were the closest thing he had to a family, and he liked things the way they were, so he just let things be.

He switched off his bedroom's main light before settling down on his own bed and switching on his side lamp. He sat there in a comfortable silence before reaching down the side of his bed and slipping his hands in between the mattress and the bed's platform, pulling out a thin metal box that was worn with time. There was nothing special about the box itself, being plain gun-metal in colour with a multitude of scratches and small dents riddling the surface. It was what was inside the box that was so special. Something that nobody else besides him knew about.

He reached inside the collar of his vest and pulled out the small silver key, bringing the chain up and over his head before unlocking the small box. He carefully lifted the lid and gazed at the objects within longingly, carefully pulling out each one and laying them on his bed in front of him. The first object was a book. A khaki coloured book with a plain white front cover with the title 'Tales of a Gutsy Ninja' written by Jiraiya. This was a book that he'd read hundreds upon hundreds of times from the first moments that he was able to read. A story about a shinobi named Naruto who never gives up and vows to break the 'curse' of hatred. On the inside of the cover was a small note that he would read countless times, committing the words to memory in case one day the book ever disappeared:

_'To Naruto, our favourite little Uzumaki. Love Mom and Dad.'_

He traced his fingers over the words a couple of times before closing the book carefully and placing it back down on his bed. He grabbed the next item which was a photo of his mother; or so he presumed. She had long, beautiful fiery-red hair with strands that framed both sides of her face and a black clip that parted her hair to the left. She had violet coloured eyes and she was wearing a high collared, sleeveless blouse under a long, loose-fitting dress. He could only describe her as incredibly beautiful.

The top left corner of the picture was torn, so all that could be seen was his pregnant mother, holding her hands around the front of her large belly with another pair of arms wrapped over hers. There was the figure of a man standing behind her, his father he guessed, but his face and half his torso was torn off, with only a white coat with flames framing the bottom of it sticking out. They were standing together in a forest full of sakura trees, and his mother looked so happy, a light blush tinting her cheeks. He let a solitary tear fall from his eyes, absently tracing his fingers along the photo, one of the few things that could connect Naruto to his parents.

He placed the picture down next to his book softly, reaching into the metal box for the second to last item. He picked it up carefully and held it out in front of him. It was a kunai. But it wasn't any ordinary kind of kunai. It was of a design that he'd never seen before and would constantly contemplate on. It had three prongs for the blade, with a yellow handle and some kind of sealing formula trailing along said handle. It also weighed a lot more than your average kunai. It was an oddity, and he couldn't for the life of him figure out what it was for. Maybe another gift for him from his father or mother he ventured.

He set it down and reached into the box for the last item, carefully pulling it out and holding it in his right hand. It was a pellet drum. A pellet drum he assumed was his first toy that would've been given to him by his parents had they been here with him. He twirled it in between his fingers several times, listening to the beat of the drums, letting it calm him down. He didn't know why, but something about the drum's noise would always immediately calm him, almost putting him in a state of total peace. All sounds around him faded out, with only the reassuring beating of the pellet drum filling his ears.

He sighed contentedly, staring out of his sliding door at the ocean, the moon's white rays lighting up the ocean's surface. 'The moon looks beautiful out tonight,' he mused thoughtfully, absently twirling the pellet drum between his fingers and feeling Kurama nod his head in agreement. He stayed like that for another hour at least before finally packing everything back into the small metal box, locking it up with his key and placing it back under his bed. He turned off his side lamp and slumped into bed, snuggling up inside the blanket covering his body.

It wasn't long before he dosed off, the familiar sound of his soft snoring filling every corner of his room. Deep within his mind though, in the grassy meadow that was his mindscape, Kurama sat thoughtfully with his half lidded eyes trained ahead of him as he thought about his jailor. Truth be told, Kurama didn't even think of Naruto as his jailor anymore, categorising him as something more akin to a; dare he say it; a friend. His life had become infinitely better after Naruto had shown up in his mindscape that one night, and he was thankful that he did.

He wouldn't have wanted that night to go any differently now that he thought long and hard about it. He was content with his life at the moment, and his container was an interesting shinobi, so he would prove to provide some good entertainment along the way in the not-too-distant future. Hell, he might even join the kid and help him out. Naruto had done nothing but help him out for the past 5 years that they had been in each other's presence, fixing his mindscape, talking to him, allowing him to use his host's senses.

He couldn't help but feel a certain amount of regret for the boy. He would do this almost every night; pull out that box and go through all of his past belongings that he had somehow gotten a hold of when he was younger. Even Kurama didn't know where they came from, but he knew who they came from. He knew all too well who Naruto's parents were. He **_was_** the one that killed them after all. But despite that, he would sit atop his bed most nights and absently wonder where his parents were and why they'd just decided to leave him, if that was indeed the case, or if perhaps they had died. Kurama preferred to try and sleep through these moments, but it was difficult when your host's raw emotions were flooding your system, keeping you from doing anything other than be forced to feel his sadness with him. **_'I'll tell you one day Naruto. I'm just, not ready to be rejected yet after finally being accepted again in so many years...'_**

Kurama closed his eyes and allowed sleep to wash over him, his furry body rising and dropping in a steady rhythm. The rest of the night was filled with Kurama's feint snores that could only just be heard by Naruto in his mindscape, as well as Naruto's snoring that rang true through his bedroom. One more day over, one more day closer to finally becoming a fully fledged Getsugakure **(Hidden Moon)** shinobi. Little did Naruto know that his entire life was soon going to become infinitely more complicated, and it all started with this year's Chūnin Exams...

* * *

_**AN: So, that's the first chapter, it's a little bit different from other stories I've read so far, so I'm hoping it will catch. I really enjoyed writing this one, and I hope to be able to write more. A quick question, I want to see if you guys know who I based the looks of the OC, **_ **_Shūhei_** _**, off of. A big thumbs up and a cookie to those who can :D **_

_**Also, the scene with the King in the market square, anyone see where that was from ;)**_

_**Anyways, rambling over, exams starting soon, so chapters will be coming up soon after I'm finished with them. Till next time...**_


	2. Another Day at the Office

**_AN: Hey guys, so far not too many views or reviews, which undoubtedly makes me a little disappointed, but nevertheless, I've have finished up with the next chapter for your enjoyment, so please... enjoy. Now. Seriously though, let me know what you guys think of the story so far, I'd really like to see how the rest of you are finding it, and whether you'd like to see some things different so I can try and adjust my writing accordingly. I'm still a pretty novice writer, so bear with me :)_**

**_By the way, big thanks to my beta BigMakki for doing a great job on correcting any errors I made. He's the reason that you'll be able to read this chapter without having to worry about errors, so send him a cookie if you get the chance ;)_**

**_Anyways, I seem to be babbling, so I'll let you guys go and read the chapter already..._**

**_LAST EDIT: (24/05/2014) - A few formatting errors corrected.  
_**

**Disclaimer: All things Naruto and characters of Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

"Normal talking"

'Normal thinking'

**_"Biju/Summon talking"_**

**_'Biju/Summon thinking'_**

* * *

_Forests behind Tsuki no Kuni _**_(Land of the Moon)_**_, one month later..._

* * *

THUD

THUD

THUD

THUD

"Argh! Why is this so difficult?!" exclaimed Naruto, as he balled his fists in his hair and shouted out his frustrations. He was currently trying to channel his wind chakra into his kunai for the next part of his training; chakra flow; but he was having varied results. He knew that it was far more difficult to successfully channel your chakra into a weapon like a kunai, because it was just made of normal metal. Which was his exact reason for deciding to use regular kunai first. If he could get the chakra flow to work with his ordinary kunai, then channelling his wind chakra through his trench knives would be no problem. Korega-taichou had said that the trench knives were made of a special type of metal, a metal which absorbed chakra easier. If he could get the chakra flow correct with these ordinary kunai, then he would be able to imbue his wind natured chakra with any weapon. In theory of course.

He just didn't count on this exercise being as difficult as it was. It wasn't that he couldn't infuse his elemental chakra into the kunai. No, that part was pretty easy. It was the sharpening of the blade that was the difficult part. He needed to 'sharpen his chakra', as it said in the scroll he was given, and he was finding it 8 different kinds of annoying. But, he reminded himself, this was what he needed to accomplish to become stronger. This was something he needed to achieve to be able to help him win the Chūnin Exams. 'I will learn this technique. I swear it on my nindo!'

He heard some snickering from the tree in front of him, and upon squinting a little harder, found Shūhei sitting up against a branch towards the top. "You just swore something on your nindo, didn't you?" he let out in between breaths of air, unable to control his laughter at the varying emotions that played over his blonde friend's face in the passing minute. Annoyance. Anger. Confusion. Determination. And then, awe and bafflement at being caught out so easily. "It was written all over your face!" he laughed out again, clutching at his stomach to relieve some of the pain caused by laughing so hard and answering his friend's silent question of 'how'. "You always make that face, and your right hand is subconsciously grabbing at that place above your heart." He laughed even harder as Naruto looked down to see that he had, in fact, subconsciously placed his hand there, watching as the blonde embarrassedly removed the appendage and looked away with crossed arms, huffing in annoyance.

"Just, s-shut up! It wasn't on purpose, y'know!" He heard his friend laugh even harder, going so far as to lose control of the chakra under his soles and fall to the ground, rolling around in amusement. He was about to ask what brought about the new bout of laughter, but his eyes widened and his cheeks tinted red in further embarrassment when he realised what he'd said. "Damn verbal tic, y'know!" he muttered irritably, narrowing his eyes dangerously when he heard Kurama start snickering in his head as well.

He turned heel and walked back towards the tree he was throwing kunai at earlier, pulling out a kunai and focusing his chakra into the blade like he'd been doing for the past month. The light blue of his chakra, almost transparent if he wasn't really looking for it, snaked its way along the metal of the weapon, covering the entire surface in the wind natured chakra of its wielder. The chakra extended the tip somewhat, but the overall look that was coming from the chakra covered blade made it look more like it was cloaked in a layer of gelatine. It was almost pathetic. But he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, setting himself up and throwing the weapon into the tree.

THUD

It wedged itself in a little further than his previous attempts, and he grinned happily at the small amount of progress he was making. Progress was progress after all. Naruto glanced back at his brunette friend whose laughter was finally calming down and pulled out another kunai. "Laugh it up Shūhei, just make sure you're ready for when the Chūnin Exams begin. I can't have dead weight on my team, y'know!" he said cheekily, a grin making its way across his face, exposing his pearly white teeth to the gleaming sun.

Shūhei, despite being jabbed at playfully by his friend, didn't rise to the comment, taking on a confident smirk instead. "Oh, don't you worry about me..." he trailed off slyly, jumping to his feet and dusting himself off, walking over to stand beside Naruto. "I'll be perfectly fine." He turned around and walked back towards the castle, his hands lazily in his pockets and a noticeable skip in his stride. He tilted his head to the side and stopped walking, taking his hands out of his pockets and folding them in front of himself. "Oh, and by the way, just holler when you need that waterfall." He turned his head forward again and trudged on back to the castle, leaving a grinning Naruto in his wake.

"So that sneaky son of a bitch managed to finally pull it off, huh?" Naruto whispered to himself, shaking his head in amusement. He turned back to the tree and pulled out another kunai, drawing his arm back for another throw. "Took the idiot long enough. Best get refocused now that the distraction is gone."

THUD

THUD

THUD

"Damn it, I still can't get it to pierce the tree very far!" He had been throwing kunai for a month now, and the furthest he'd gotten the blade to pierce the tree was as far as halfway, where the blade extended outwards and then back inwards again. He walked up to the tree and slowly removed all of his kunai, repacking each one inside his pouch with a new goal in mind for the rest of the day. He'd used the first four hours of the morning to practise his chakra flow, so now he needed to try and fix the problem he'd had since beginning in the Academy. He needed to find a substitute for the _Bunshin no Jutsu _**_(Clone Technique)_**. If he wanted to be a good shinobi, he'd need to get the basics down first. He already covered the other two basic jutsu. Those he could perform in his sleep, but he still hadn't found a solution to his clone problem.

With a destination in mind, Naruto brought his right hand up into the Ram seal and began building up his chakra, before he lowered it again and shook his head. "No, I need to try and master this jutsu too, so no hand seals. Just build my chakra, and..." He disappeared in a puff of smoke, reappearing atop the roof of the castle that he lived in, albeit a little slower than usual. He looked out towards the sky and noted the sun's position at about just past halfway, so it was around 12 o'clock in the afternoon. He looked in the direction of the Academy and focused his chakra again, disappearing in a puff of smoke and reappearing a little ways further, repeating this process until he got to the Academy.

"I'll work on adding the leaves into that again once I master it without hand seals and go a little bit faster with it. Maybe I can add my wind nature to it as well to give it a little extra something." He trailed off and walked into the Academy, heading straight to his old class sensei to ask for her help. After his class had been split into their teams, they had been removed from the classrooms and would meet with their Jounin-sensei everyday instead, practising to work as a team. Due to unfortunate circumstances and bad luck, there weren't enough Jounin to give to each team, so because he and Shūhei were the top two of the class; and by a land slide at that; it was decided that they wouldn't need a Jounin-sensei and could train by themselves. If they ever did need help they would just need to visit the Academy and find one of the instructors to help them out.

He passed by a few classrooms, each class holding a different age group, but no class holding more than 20 pupils. There really was an extremely small amount of shinobi on this island. He rounded on the classroom and knocked on the door, sliding it open as he peered his head inside. Sitting behind the desk in the front of the class he found the form of his sensei, a young bespectacled woman with brown hair tied into a pony tail. "Good afternoon Nami-sensei, do you think you'd be able to help me out with something?"

The now named Nami looked up from her work towards her surprise visitor, smiling warmly upon spotting who it was. "Ah, good afternoon Naruto. What a pleasant surprise," she exclaimed as she gestured for Naruto to come in. "Come take a seat and I'll see what I can do for you."

Naruto took the offered seat and folded his arms on the desk, sending a cursory glance across the splayed out papers before looking back up into the onyx eyes of his sensei. "Well sensei, I wanted to have a mastery of all the basic Academy jutsu, but I've never been able to master the _Bunshin no Jutsu _**_(Clone Technique)_**, and I was hoping that maybe you could help me by giving me some kind of variation for the clone technique, or something along those lines so that I can safely say I have mastered all the Academy jutsu."

His sensei regarded him with a curious look, putting her pen down and giving him a long hard stare. Naruto's absurdly large chakra reserves were no secret to the Academy teachers, all having sensed it at some point or another. They had all managed to deduce that that was the reason for his continued failure in the last of the three basic Academy jutsu. And here he was trying to fix that problem, trying to better himself even further as a shinobi of this island. She continued to stare at him with a piercing gaze, silently enjoying him squirm uncomfortably in his seat.

She eventually gave him a fond smile and nodded her head. "I'm sure there's something around here that I can let you use. There are many clone techniques out there, some using different elements, while others requiring large amounts of chakra. Unfortunately, your element is wind if I remember correctly, and there are no clone techniques that I know of that involve that element, so it would be unbeneficial for you to try and learn one of the other elemental clone techniques." She let that first bit of information sink in before walking over to her personal cupboard in the back of the classroom and biting her finger, drawing a small amount of blood.

"There is however, another clone technique which I think would be perfectly suited for you. It was given to us, amongst other things, a long time ago by Konohagakure no Sato **(Villlage Hidden in the Leaves)** as an act of good faith when establishing the small alliance between our two villages. All that is required for this clone technique is large chakra reserves, which you've got in spades, so I think that if anyone would be able to use this technique to its full potential, it would be you."

She swiped her bloodied finger across the drawer in the cupboard, a small seal lighting up on the front before fading back out of view and popping the drawer open with a click. She flicked through several scrolls in the drawer before grunting in satisfaction and grabbing the required scroll, closing the drawer back up and sitting back down in her seat. She gave the scroll a good blow down, throwing all the lingering dust off the top of the scroll and placing it in front of Naruto.

He glanced down at the scroll and lifted it up into his hands, reading the kanji inscribed on the front. "_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu _**_(Shadow Clone Technique)_**..." He was about to open it before Nami-sensei got his attention again, tapping the desk with her fingers.

"Now, if that will be all Naruto, I have work to get back to." she stated tersely, staring at him intently in the eyes again.

Naruto slowly pocketed the scroll before looking back up at his sensei and grinning innocently. "But I thought you'd enjoy some company sensei, are you sure you want me to leave? It's been a little over 3 months since you've been in the presence of your favourite pupil, are you sure I can't stay and work here. What if I have questions?"

His sensei just shook her head and turned down to her work, continuing where she left off before she was interrupted. "Sorry Naruto, but I really must get back to work, and that scroll is very user-friendly, so you shouldn't have any questions. If you do, try and find one of the Jounin-sensei, one of them might even know the technique. Now, thank you for the visit Naruto, but I must be getting back to work. Oh, and I forbid you from teaching that jutsu to anyone else if you manage to master it. That jutsu could lead to death if someone doesn't have big enough chakra reserves, so please be careful."

With that, she fully tuned herself back into her work, leaving Naruto to silently leave the classroom and head on his way back home. "Now I've got something else I can work on in between my chakra flow. I wonder what kind of clone a _Kage Bunshin _**_(Shadow Clone)_** is?" he wondered absentmindedly, jumping from rooftop to rooftop as he made his way back to the forests behind the castle to try out his newly acquired technique.

It didn't take long for him to reach the castle without using a shunshin, rather opting to let the wind ruffle his clothes as he zoomed on through the town and forest with as much speed as he could muster, jumping to and fro acrobatically. He enjoyed his time speeding through the air, with wind blowing against his face and throwing the bangs of his hair into complete disarray. It was oddly exhilarating, and so who was he to deny himself that small pleasure of life?

XxX

He landed on the ground in the forest without a sound, not even crunching a stray leaf or breaking a small twig on the way down. He plopped down onto the grass and crossed his legs, pulling out the scroll and untying the string that was keeping it together, slowly unfurling the paper as he did so. It wasn't a very long scroll, he noted, but there was quite a bit regarding the technique itself, so he decided to read it carefully and commit the whole thing to memory.

**'!WARNING! THIS IS A JOUNIN-LEVEL TECHNIQUE, AND IF USED BY SOMEONE WHOSE CHAKRA RESERVES ARE NOT SUBSTANTIAL ENOUGH, USE OF THIS JUTSU COULD RESULT IN DEATH!'**

_This technique creates clones of the user, however these clones are corporeal instead of illusions like the basic _**Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Technique)**_. The user's chakra is evenly distributed between each clone. The clones are capable of performing their own techniques, and can bleed, but will be dispelled if they take a hit with enough force behind it. _

_The most distinguishable trait of a Kage Bunshin is that the experience of the clone is returned back to the user once it dispels, and is therefore a very effective tool for spying or reconnaissance missions. Any chakra that is still left in a clone when it dispels will be returned to the user. Any damage done to the clone will not be transferred to the user._

_The hand seals are the clone seal, which is accomplished by crossing your right index and middle fingers over your left index and middle fingers in a cross seal._

_This technique was developed by the Nidaime Hokage, Senju Tobirama._

**Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multi Shadow Clone Technique) **_is an A-Rank supplementary kinjutsu _**_(Forbidden Technique)_**_, which is just a larger version of the shadow clone jutsu, creating anywhere from one hundred clones to anything greater. It is considered a kinjutsu because each clone is given an equal portion of chakra from the user, potentially draining the user of all their chakra thus killing them.'_

'Woah...' Naruto breathed, reading over everything once more. A jutsu developed by the Nidaime Hokage, the famed Senju Tobirama, the greatest Suiton **(Water Release)** user to have ever existed. And he was going to learn a jutsu developed by this guy? A grin slowly etched its way onto his face, threatening to split his face in 2 from the sheer joy behind it.

**_'Woah is right.'_** muttered Kurama, looking up from his perch. **_'One of you is trouble enough, I cannot imagine having to deal with hundreds more.'_** Naruto ignored his inner-being's sarcastic remark with great difficulty in favour of getting back to the technique. He couldn't give Kurama the benefit of losing his temper... again. **_'Oh, but you manage to lose your temper every so often even without my assistance.'_** he snickered back, taking great pleasure in annoying his host. He was way too easy to rile up. Naruto gritted his teeth and cut off the mental link for now, needing a little peace and quiet.

He quickly jumped to his feet, placed the scroll carefully back into his pocket and put his hands into the required hand seal, crossing his right index and middle finger over his left index and middle finger. "Well, here goes nothing." he muttered, building up his chakra for his first attempt of the jutsu. He had all the time in the world to practise this jutsu, but he wanted to get it done as soon as possible so he could refocus on his chakra flow. Hopefully this jutsu wouldn't take too long to get a grip of.

* * *

_Forests in Tsuki no Kuni _**_(Land of the Moon)_**_, 7 hours later..._

* * *

"Naruto! Naruto!" shouted Shūhei with his hands cupped around his mouth, jumping from tree to tree in search of his wayward brother. Naruto was supposed to have been home an hour ago, but he had yet to show up, and Michiru-ojisan and Kakeru-ojiisan had been getting worried, so they decided to send Shūhei out to look for him, leading to the current situation. 'What the fuck is he doing, and where the fuck is he doing it? I've been looking for him for about 45 minutes now!'

Shūhei gritted his teeth and cupped his hands around his mouth for another massive shout. "Narut-... what the fuck..." His eyes drifted towards the ground inside the next clearing to where he found his best friend lying on the ground, staring up at the stars that were creeping their way into the night sky. Now, there was nothing particularly off about that. What was strange though was the fact that there were... '28, 29, 30...' Yeah, 30 Naruto's splayed out all around the clearing, each one staring up at the starry night sky as if nothing was wrong about the current situation.

Hearing his name called, 'Naruto' turned to look at his brother and best friend Shūhei as he landed in the middle of the clearing, all 30 pair's of eyes locking with him. Shūhei promptly took a wary step back, suddenly finding the current situation a little scary if he had to be honest. "Ah, N-Naruto, what have you been doing? Michiru-ojisan and Kakeru-ojiisan were worried when you didn't come home."

He waited for a while before all the 'Naruto's' looked to the centre of their group towards a noticeably more scuffed-up Naruto who was grinning widely with pride with both of his hands locked behind his head. "I feel bad for worrying them, but I was out here practising a new jutsu, and I just got it down about 30 minutes ago. See..." he said happily, gesturing to all the clones around him.

Shūhei walked up to one of the Naruto clones and absentmindedly stuck his fingers into the nearest one's eyes. "I see you finally got the Bunshin no-... what the fuck? They're solid!"

Said clone grabbed his face and dropped to the ground on his knees, writhing around in pain. "Ah! Why would you do that?!" he deadpanned painfully, staring angrily towards Shūhei.

The clone looked like it was about ready to get up and start a fight with Shūhei, so before anything could escalate, Naruto dispelled the clone in a puff of smoke. After dispelling the clone, he unconsciously glanced his hand over his eyes, and looked towards Shūhei with a grimace. "Okay, never **_ever_** stick your fingers in my eyes again. That really hurt, and I mean, **_really_** hurt."

Shūhei looked confused for a second and looked back to where the clone was standing before it was dispelled. "But I didn't stick my fingers in your eyes. I stuck them in your clone's eyes, so what's the problem?"

Naruto placed his hands on his hips and looked towards Shūhei with a chiding finger and a sarcastic scowl as he went into a semi-lecture mode. "But see here Shūhei, everything that my clones experience is transferred back to me when they dispel, so I did feel you stick your fingers in my eyes, and let me tell you, it wasn't a pleasant experience." He shivered involuntarily and saw his brunette friend looking at him oddly.

"So you're saying that if one of these clones had to read a book for say, schoolwork, once they're dispelled, everything they read would be transferred back to you?" he asked curiously, watching as Naruto nodded back in confrimation. He rolled his hand over a couple of times in a 'please continue' kind of way to see if he could get Naruto onto the same wave length that he was on, but no dice. Naruto was acting as dumb as ever. He almost snickered. "And..." he dragged out, "what if one of them had to learn, for instance, oh I don't know, a jutsu maybe..."

Naruto seemed to ponder the thought for several seconds before his eyes lit up and spoke excitedly. "I actually don't know, but if they could, and I made each one do it, I could learn jutsus or anything in no time at all as I dispel them and receive their experience! Just think of the possibilities for training!" he said happily with stars in his eyes, now standing in front of Shūhei with less than a metre in between them.

Shūhei quickly turned his blonde haired friend away from him and pushed him in the direction of the castle. "Now come on, we need to go back to the castle. You can try all this out tomorrow."

Naruto looked back at Shūhei with pleading eyes, but seeing that he wasn't going to budge, slumped his shoulders and turned back to the clones with his hands in the cross hand sign, sending up the entire clearing into a cloud of smoke. "Okay, let's go back then." he said tiredly, throwing an arm around Shūhei's shoulder and using him to support himself.

Shūhei felt a momentary pang of anger at being used like some kind of walking stick, but looking down at the tired form of his friend, he smiled warmly and threw his own arm around his blonde friend's shoulder. "Yeah, let's go home. You look like shit by the way." he said all too happily, smiling ahead as he saw the narrowing of Naruto's eyes.

"Thank you so much Shūhei for summing that up..." he deadpanned sarcastically, turning his head away from his friend to look forward again. "Now just help me get home." Shūhei just nodded and decided to leave Naruto alone. For now at least. He looked like he had had a tough day of training, so he could ease up a little he figured. If only for a little bit.

* * *

_Back in the Tsuki no Kuni _**_(Land of the Moon) _**_castle, later that night..._

* * *

Naruto strolled down the stairs to the second floor of the castle towards the dining hall, clad in his pyjamas after a well deserved shower. He had had a helluva day training, so a warm shower after getting home was just what the doctor ordered to soothe the muscles. He was on his way to have supper with the whole family as per the usual weekly time. If he could call them family. He still wasn't too sure on that front. But having supper as a family was something that they were extremely religious about, something they did once every week, and he kinda liked it. It was a nice constant in his life as a ninja in training.

He pushed through the large wooden doors leading into the dining room and took in the magnificent aromas that were instantly assaulting his nostrils. The very first thing that tickled his taste buds was the ramen. His all time favourite. Miso ramen. If he was ever stranded on an island with nothing but ramen to eat, Naruto would be in cloud nine, nevermind that he would be stranded. He lived off the stuff, the food of Gods, the stuff of legends. He took in a big whiff of ramen and sighed out in blissful content. 'Ah, there's really nothing like a steaming bowl of ramen, and I haven't found anyone that can make it better than this castle's chef yet. I can't wait till the day that I do, because whoever can make better ramen than this guy will definitely be making some pretty out-of-this-world ramen!' he thought excitedly, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

**_'I have stated this once before and I shall state it again; the reason that you are so short is because of the ungodly amount of ramen that you inhale. Yes, I did say inhale, don not think me mistaken gaki,'_** came the gruff voice of Kurama, lying down in his usual position within the recesses of Naruto's mind. He had tasted ramen through the sense of his host many, many, many, **_many_** times before, and at first he had really enjoyed the stuff. But the sheer amount of ramen his host consumed turned him off of the stuff in no time at all. Surely eating that much of the stuff was detrimental to his host's health, Kurama thought time and time again. Naruto was lucky that he was an Uzumaki, as well as the fact that Kurama was sealed inside of him. Being an Uzumaki, he already had a much faster healing rate than a normal human, but with the Kyuubi sealed inside him, that healing rate was improved exponentially. He had seen it time and time again in his previous hosts, who all happened to be Uzumaki as well.

'Don't be hating the ramen Kurama, or I'll find a way to get some to you as well. And I'm not that short! I'm 1.5m! That's about average height for my age!' he thought threateningly. Naruto slowly walked towards the table and spotted the multitude of different foods that were splayed out all over the table. The rest of his family wasn't down yet, but they'd be here soon enough. Naruto always came down first to scope out the menu before everyone decided to tuck in. Also, he liked to 'nibble' on some of the food before everyone else got down there as well. **_'Ha! Nibble. That was a funny one gaki!'_**

Naruto flustered a little and momentarily took his eyes away from the food and the chef that was currently getting prepared to make the teppanyaki in front of his guests, opting to walk off to the side a little. 'Just s-shut up, y'know! I'm a growing boy, I need the food you damn furball! And besides, this food is way too good to not eat as much as you possibly can. Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I hear those onigiri calling my name,' he thought hungrily, salivating at the mouth as he made his way to the desired platter of food and began 'nibbling' on a few pieces. Kurama just smirked in victory and decided to watch from inside. He would poke fun at his host later on.

Naruto had been nibbling for several minutes until someone finally started making their way down to the dinner table, dressed in semi-formal clothes. It seemed that he was the only that had forgotten to dress up once again. "Ah, Naruto-kun, I see you're all right. We were quite worried about you earlier," came the deep voice of King Kakeru, striding into the hall with the poise and grace of someone befitting his title. He was an elderly man with long, unkempt white hair that formed into a beard on his face, with the top part of his head balding. He was wearing his King's robes and looked to be in good spirits as usual. He always looked happy like that.

Naruto slowly turned around from the table, turning to look at where the king's voice had come from, his mouth filled to the brim with food. He turned around with a surprised expression, looking like he'd just been caught stealing from the 'sacred' cookie jar. He smiled sheepishly and took a massive gulp, swallowing everything at once and letting out a content sigh. "Ah, yeah, sorry to worry you about that Kakeru-ojiisan," he apologised, rubbing the back of his head with his right hand. "I guess I kinda lost track of time while I was out training."

Kakeru dismissed his apology with a wave of his hand, smiling softly at the boy. "Not to worry, I trust your training has been going well in preparation for the upcoming Chūnin Exams?" Kakeru asked, taking a seat at the head of the table and making himself comfortable. Naruto followed suit, and decided to take a seat and hold off on the food until everyone else arrived. He decided that some consideration for everyone else was probably a good idea.

Getting back to the question, Naruto nodded his head enthusiastically and grinned widely, immediately getting taken up in the topic. "Of course! I've been training like crazy for the past 3 months y'know, and I'm not stopping until we leave for the Chūnin Exams!"

Kakeru chuckled softly and looked fondly towards the boy. His verbal tic always made its presence known when Naruto was either feeling very excited or flustered. It made him seem all the more innocent. He flashed back to the day when he had first seen the boy in that market square, running for his and his best friend's life. He had come a long way since then, and so had Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)**. He focused his eyes back on the boy and laced his fingers together in front of him. "Don't ever lose that verbal tic of yours Naruto-kun. It's something that makes you unique, something that tells you apart from others. It's what makes you, you. Don't let anyone ever tell you any different."

Naruto's cheeks reddened and he nodded timidly, averting his gaze to the food spread out all across the table. "I won't Kakeru-ojiisan, I promise y'know." The king nodded back and turned his head to the door when it opened, Michiru, Hikaru and Shūhei all strolling in together and taking their seats. Naruto's mood did a complete 180 and he shouted out to the latecomers. "Hey Michiru-ojisan, Hikaru, Shūhei. It took you guys long enough. Now we can finally dig in!" He grabbed his chopsticks and broke them apart, muttering a quick 'Itadakimasu', and before anyone could question how, began digging into a bowl a ramen that somehow materialised in front of him.

Everyone watched in amazement as empty bowl after empty bowl was placed atop one another beside him, the pile steadily growing in the time span of only 4 and a half minutes. Everyone shook their heads free from their reverie, smiling in amusement and taking to their own food with gusto, enjoying the food that was prepared for them this night. Every week the chefs managed to outdo themselves with the food they prepared, and tonight was no different.

Sometimes Naruto and Shūhei would feel bad about getting to eat like this, especially when they thought back to all the people who used to live on the streets like them. But after they had been taken in by the king, there had been an increase in the standard of living in the more rural areas, and they were now more built up than ever before. King Kakeru had transformed this island in no time at all from a state of poverty into its current state of paradise. He was an incredible king, and he ruled this land with the utmost care, taking care of this place as he would his own child. Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)** was prospering, and they would be getting some good publicity soon. 'Two more months, and then we'll be kicking ass with the best of them. My fists are shaking in anticipation and excitement!'

**_'Easy there gaki, you do not even know if you and Shūhei are going to get picked yet,'_** voiced Kurama, enjoying the taste of the teppanyaki that Naruto was chewing on at the moment. It was grilled to perfection, as was expected of someone working for the king.

'Pfft, as if we wouldn't get picked. Shūhei and I are the top two students in class. There's absolutely no competition,' Naruto answered back, taking another helping of steaks right off the platter.

**_'Hmph. I suppose you make a fair point. Just do not get too ahead of yourself. You don't want to go into this thing half-cocked so to speak, so you should make sure to use this time wisely and get as strong as possible.'_**

Naruto nodded his head and began chewing on another piece. 'I know Kurama, I won't get reckless on you, don't worry. That's what Shūhei's for. He's more level headed than me, so he can keep me in line when the time comes. I hope.' He stopped chewing and took on a thoughtful look for a second, looking over to his long time friend. 'Now that I think about it, a spar with him is probably in order soon so that we can gauge each other's skills and see how we fight. That way we'll be able to think on the best ways to use each other's techniques and strengths.'

Kurama nodded his head in the affirmative, placing his head back down on the perch that consisted of his arms and closed his slitted eyes. **_'You know gaki, that is actually a very clever idea. You should pat yourself on the back for that one.'_**

Naruto just rolled his eyes and continued to tuck into the small steaks that were being prepared in front of him by one of the chefs. 'Don't underestimate me. I'm not as hopeless as you think I am. Some faith in your friendly-neighbourhood-blonde-haired maverick would be nice every once in a while,' he thought sarcastically, swallowing another small beef steak. "This steak is really amazing Chef-san. You guys really know how to cook 'em!" he said absently with a grin on his face, said chef smiling happily to the young boy and giving him an appreciative nod.

Kurama huffed in his container's head and breathed out a heavy breath. **_'Alright gaki, I'll admit you are not as hopeless as you may seem, but do not let that get to your head. The last thing we need is for the fire that is your ego to get stoked any further.'_** Kurama shifted on his spot and readjusted his back legs, making himself more comfortable. **_'Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to take a nap.'_**

Naruto felt Kurama forcefully pull himself out of their mental link, leaving Naruto alone with his mind once more. It felt weird when Kurama wasn't there. Almost like a part of him was missing when their mental link was severed. He grinned happily and went back to eating his food though. He was glad that no matter where he was or where he went, he would always have a friend with him. That was something quite comforting, he noted. Kurama was his friend, and he was there to stay. He would never be alone.

* * *

_The forests of Tsuki no Kuni _**_(Land of the Moon)_**_, the next day..._

* * *

It was another beautiful morning in Tsuki, with the sun peeking its head over the horizon to give the earth the light it needed. It was still pretty early in the morning, with a thin layer of mist permeating the air on the island. There wasn't a breath of wind that morning, and the crispness of the cold morning air was incredibly refreshing. Naruto took in a deep breath of fresh air, once again finding himself in the forest clearing he had taken to using for his chakra flow training. It was a rather large clearing, which was perfect for what he wanted to try out this morning and hopefully for the rest of the day.

He made his way to the middle of the clearing and placed his fingers into his clone hand seal, building up a sizeable amount of chakra. "_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu _**_(Shadow Clone Technique)!_**" In a massive puff of smoke, the entire clearing was filled with Naruto after Naruto, each looking down to the center at the original. The 50 Naruto's that littered the clearing all nodded their heads, already having received the mental command of what to do before being created. Each clone paired up and headed towards a tree, each pulling out a kunai and beginning the chakra flow exercise that he'd been doing for so long now.

The original remained standing in his place in the middle of the clearing, not really sure of what to do now. Maybe he should just watch his clones for a bit. Or maybe he should be doing the exercise too. Kurama shook his head and put in his own two cents. **_'Go to the other clearing and start on one of the Fūton _****(Wind Release) ****_jutsu that was in that scroll given to you by your sensei. That would be the most efficient use of your time.'_**

Naruto pondered on that for a moment and nodded his head, finding it to be as good an idea as any. 'I suppose you're right. Okay, let's see...' he thought, jumping down to the clearing beside the previous one and pulling out the scroll his sensei had given him. 'The first jutsu is a C-rank offensive supplementary ninjutsu, short to mid-range, called _Fūton: Reppūshou _**_(Wind Release: Gale Palm)_**. Wind is compressed and creates a powerful gale that is strong enough to easily knock over a human. Can also be used to increase the speed and destructive force of ranged weapons such as kunai and shuriken. Hm, sounds easy enough.'

He reread the scroll several times before pocketing it and facing the largest tree in the clearing. The only hand seal that he needed was a simple clapping of the hands together. 'That's perfect for a first jutsu. This should be super easy to learn.' He clapped his hands together and built up some chakra for the technique. "_Fūton: Reppūshou _**_(Wind Release: Gale Palm)_**!" There was a barely noticeable change in the air currents, but other than that, nothing really happened. Naruto's shoulders didn't slump though. This was just another jutsu he would need to try and master before the Chūnin Exams started and he and Shūhei had to leave. Just a little less than two months and they'd be on their way. He refocused on the tree in front of him and tried again, and again, and again. He would get this technique done before they had to leave, and maybe he'd be able to start learning one more just before they left. "Okay, again! _Fūton: Reppūshou _**_(Wind Release: Gale Palm)_**!"

XxX

"Huh, *pant*, *pant*, that was *pant*, exhausting *pant*. I think I'm *pant*, almost out of chakra," breathed an out of breath Naruto as he stumbled into the clearing that was filled with all of his clones. He had been practising the _Fūton: Reppūshou _**_(Wind Release: Gale Palm)_** for the past who knew how long, and he couldn't really feel his arms any more. He was lucky to be standing, he thought as an afterthought.

He fell down onto his backside and leaned up against a tree that wasn't being used by one of his clones, deciding to watch his clones go at it for a little while so he could catch his breath. He'd be back and swinging in no time, he just needed a little rest. "Naruto! Naruto!"

He turned in the direction he heard the voice and cupped his hands around his mouth. "I'm over here Shūhei!" He didn't have to wait long for Shūhei to jump down into the clearing, walking up to the Naruto leaning against the tree, assuming him to be the real one.

"So, I see you're trying out the clone training thing we discussed yesterday. So, does it help? Are you any better at your chakra flow technique?" he asked curiously, genuinely interested in the results. He had just suggested this training method on a whim, not really thinking that it could actually be plausible. It was all good and well in theory, but he was a bit skeptical about the actual outcome of the method. If it was true and it did work, then why didn't everyone do it? Although he had heard Naruto say that you needed an absurdly large amount of chakra to use this jutsu for even a few clones, and he had made 50 here, so Naruto clearly had the chakra for the jutsu. Maybe that was why.

Naruto let out an exhausted breath and closed his eyes softly. "I'm not sure, I haven't dispelled them yet. I just got back here from training my first Fūton jutsu."

Shūhei nodded his head and slapped his best friend's shoulder softly. "Well then, dispel these clones and let's see what we got," he let out excitedly, jumping to his feet and pulling Naruto up with him. He urged Naruto forward and nodded his head at the clones. "You said that this training would've probably taken you all 6 months to get down if you wanted to have it ready before the Chūnin Exams, right? Well, let's see if you managed to learn it in 3..."

Naruto nodded his head and put his hands in the clone seal. "Well, here goes nothing I guess." He dispelled all the clones, sending the entire clearing up in a cloud of smoke. He stood there for a while and waited for the cloud of smoke to dissipate. After several more seconds though, he felt like he just got a massive headache, and clutched at his head in momentary pain, dropping to one knee in exhaustion. "Ugh, that was weird. My head feels like it's going to explode." But as soon as it came, it was gone, and only the lingering exhaustion remained.

**_'Baka!'_** Kurama muttered exasperatedly, not at all surprised by the current situation. **_'Receiving the experience of so many clones will obviously take a mental toll on your mind, and the exhaustion experienced by each copy will be transferred as well. You have overdone it once again Naruto.'_** Kurama rolled his eyes from within Naruto's mind and chuckled lightly. **_'Ah gaki, will you ever learn?'_**

Naruto got back up onto his legs and took a few deep breaths. 'Thanks for that **_thorough_** analysis Kurama,' he thought sarcastically, pulling out a kunai from within his pouch.

"Hey, Naruto, are you alright? You look a little pale," Shūhei worriedly spoke, holding an arm around Naruto's shoulder. He looked like he was about to collapse from exhaustion.

Naruto just gripped a little tighter on the kunai and nodded his head. "I'm fine, I just got the collective exhaustion from all the clones." He lined up at the tree and drew his arm back. 'Now, let's see if all this exhaustion was worth it. Sharpen my chakra, that's what I gotta do. Sharpen my chakra...' He let his wind natured chakra flow into the kunai, and was exhaustedly unaware of its current disposition. It was currently covered in the light blue, almost white, colour of Naruto's wind chakra, the chakra extending the blade and sharpening it indefinitely with unnoticeable ease, not looking anything like the jelly-covered form it was taking before. But not even knowing what he was doing, he threw the kunai.

BOOM

His eyes widened to the size of saucers as he watched his ordinary kunai go flying right through a 2 meter thick tree and fly out the other side, digging itself into the trunk of another tree right up to the hilt. "How was that S-Shūhei..." he breathed, his eye lids closing and his body going limp as he fell to the floor unconscious. Or, he would have, but Shūhei had just managed to catch Naruto on his back and picked him up in a piggy back.

Shūhei shook his head in disbelief and let out a small chuckle. "That. Was. Incredible. You just keep getting stronger Naruto, and you never give up. There's no telling how strong you'll get, and I'll be there with you every step of the way. That's what best friends are for, right?" He didn't receive an answer, but he didn't need one. He knew what it was anyways. He trodded back to the castle with an unconscious Naruto on his back, having great difficulty in carrying the older and heavier boy. 'What a drag...' he muttered, not knowing at all the significance of those words. 'Best get back home.'

* * *

_Elsewhere, in the middle of Konohagakure no Sato _**_(The Village Hidden in the Leaves)_**_..._

* * *

Lying down on the grass, staring up lazily at the slow moving forms of the white clouds in the sky was one Nara Shikamaru. He was just enjoying another average day off from being a ninja. His team sensei Sarutobi Asuma was out on an important mission, leaving the rest of the squad off for the week.

"Ah, there's nothing better than just lazing around during the afternoon and staring up at the clouds," he uttered lazily, breathing out a soft sigh. "Damn clouds. They have it so easy. Just floating around in the sky without a care. Lucky bastards-...*achoo*. Agh, great, a cold. Just what I need," he muttered with great effort as he wiped at his nose lazily. "What a drag..."

* * *

_Back in Tsuki no Kuni _**_(Land of the Moon)_**_, the next day..._

* * *

DRIP

DRIP

DRIP

"Agh, Kami, there's only one place that drips like this," Naruto spoke groggily, opening his eyes slowly so that they could adjust to the sudden influx of light that was shining in from everywhere. He wondered countless times where all the light came from in his mind. It just seemed to exist, defying the laws of something; physics, the universe, he didn't know, he just knew that it wasn't normal. But, when was anything ever normal with Naruto. He was about to go and speak with a fox that was staying in his mind. He didn't **_do_** normal. "Ugh, even after all this time I still can't fix that fucking drip!"

He slowly raised himself onto his feet and dusted himself off out of principle, not having dirt or dust anywhere upon his body. He walked for a bit, knowing exactly where he was and where he needed to be now that he had traversed through the inside of his mind countless times. He found where he wanted to be and took a seat on the as-always freshly cut green grass, taking off his shoes and stretching his toes out along the surface. "So Kurama, what do you need? And how long have I been out? The last thing I remember was falling unconscious after throwing my kunai through a tree... Oh yeah, that was awesome wasn't it! I totally nailed the chakra flow technique y'know!"

Naruto was beaming with pride. He had finally managed to learn the technique that he'd been trying to learn for the better part of 3 months. It would have taken him even longer if it wasn't for the training he had done using his clones. If he had to estimate, he would guess that he had managed to squeeze in the last 2 months of training that he needed into the other afternoon. Talk about convenient. He could learn anything with ease if he just used enough clones. Although, that would take away that great feeling you got after mastering a technique through hours of hard work and practice. He would have to use it in moderation then.

...

...

...

**_"Ha! Who are you kidding gaki? _**You**_, use that training method in _**moderation**_? I did not even think you possessed such a word in your vocabulary,"_** boomed the voice of Kurama as he bared his fangs in a toothy grin, a grin that was oddly reminiscent of Naruto's foxy grin.

Naruto huffed indignantly and turned away from Kurama. "Y'know, I've noticed that you have become increasingly sarcastic lately," he started with narrowed eyes as he glanced into the red, slitted eyes of his nine-tailed fox friend. "I don't like it," he deadpanned, his face devoid of emotion.

Kurama snorted in amusement and grinned toothily again. **_"Well I have noticed that you have been increasingly spitting out that verbal tic of yours,"_** he remarked back, enjoying the twitch of Naruto's eyebrow as he stared dangerously towards the fox. **_"Easy there gaki, I did not figure you for one to possess such a look of intense disdain." _**Oh how ironic it was for him to be saying such a thing. The irony was lost on both of them though. One for not knowing, the other for just not realising it.

Naruto continued to stare for a bit before his face softened and he broke out into a fit of laughter. "You're right, do you know how difficult it was for me to keep my face like that," he said while rubbing at his jaw as if in pain. "Honestly, it's exhausting to act angry like that and be hateful. I can't imagine how some people can hate like they do. It's such a terrible feeling."

Kurama nodded slowly and averted his gaze somewhat in shame. **_"Yes, uhm, right. Well, you have been out for only one night. You passed out from exhaustion, as you remember."_** Naruto nodded his head in the affirmative, confirming his knowledge of passing out. **_"Now, the real reason I brought you here was because... I wanted to explain to you properly what I am, and what I am doing here. It is linked to Konohagakure _**_(Hidden Leaf)_**_, and I wanted to explain it to you before we got there for the Chūnin Exams."_**

He allowed Naruto some time to absorb that information. He knew that Naruto had figured that Kurama wasn't his 'conscience'. That explanation had worked when he was about 8 years old, but he was older now, and he knew better. Naruto nodded his head, already figuring that Kurama was hiding something. But he would let him take his time to tell it. He knew that Kurama probably had secrets. Hell, Naruto himself had secrets, although Kurama probably knew all of them, but that was besides the point. In the end, he would just listen and see what his foxy friend had to say.

**_"I want to tell you now because... there is a good possibility that you will hear about it when you get there. So I would rather you hear it from me before you hear a severely distorted version by someone else. Now, I know that you know of the bijū, but beyond that your knowledge of them is severely lacking. That is neither here nor there though."_** He shifted his position and sat up normally, his nine tails swishing carelessly behind him. **_"The bijū are extreme masses of chakra, and are differentiated by the number of tails they have, ranging from 1 to 9."_** He watched as realisation slowly started to creep onto Naruto's face, but he continued regardless. **_"The story behind how we were created is not important, but after our creation, humans failed to see us as sapient beings, rather seeing us as demons and regarding us with fear and scorn. But due to our immense power and chakra, they sought us out to use as nothing more than mere weapons and tools for their every whim. They did this by sealing the tailed beasts away into humans, who would later become known as jinchūriki."_**

He watched as Naruto's face slowly morphed into one of realisation, his eyes widening as they focused on the 9 swishing tails behind the fox. Naruto's eyes drifted to Kurama's, and he could only nod in affirmation. Naruto said nothing though, swallowing heavily and nodding back up to the fox, silently telling him to continue.

**_"I'm sure you have figured it out by now, but in case you haven't, I am the Kyūbi no Kitsune _**_(Nine Tailed Fox)_**_, and you are a jinchūriki. Now, that being said..."_** Kurama trailed off, not really sure how to continue. It was all up to what Naruto thought on the situation now.

Naruto was silent for a while as he stared down at the floor by his feet, playing with the grass with his toes. He carried on staring right at the grass by his feet, with his hands absently pulling on a few pieces of grass. He could feel the fox's uneasiness. It was rolling off of him in droves. He couldn't blame him though. This information was quite a surprise to say the least. "The Kyūbi no Kitsune, huh? I have the strongest of the bijū sealed within me?" He let out a soft chuckle and glanced up at the fox's red eyes. "I think that this changes jack shit Kurama. We've been friends now for what, 5 years? I'm not just gonna turn my back on you just because I now know what or who you are. That would make me some kind of a racist, wouldn't it? And I'm nothing if not tolerant."

Kurama stared at Naruto, trying to discern any negative emotions eminating off of the boy in front of him. He couldn't. His face slowly spread out in a grin, his teeth baring as he smiled down at the blonde. **_"You know Naruto, you never cease to surprise me. I suppose there is some measure of truth behind your moniker, 'The Most Unpredictable Ninja'."_**

Naruto chuckled sheepishly with his hands behind his head. " I suppose so, huh." He grinned up at the orange fox sitting ahead of him and put his ninja sandals back on, getting up onto his feet. "I appreciate you telling me all this Kurama, but this really does change nothing, so I think it's time for me to go. Also, can I tell Shūhei? He's like my brother, my best friend. Surely I can tell him," Naruto begged, his hands clapped together in a placating manner.

Kurama rolled his eyes at the childish behaviour. **_"Honestly... one moment you are as mature as an adult, and the next you are squealing like an infant. Nevertheless, tell your friend if you wish, just know that jinchūriki are usually frowned upon and treated as outcasts, so tread cautiously."_**

Naruto nodded his head with a hesitant look on his face but smiled back nonetheless. "Okay then, if you would be so kind as to eject me from this plain," he said dramatically, lowering down into an over exaggerated bow.

Kurama once again rolled his eyes but complied. **_"Tch. Damned gaki."_** He spoke with a grin though, feeling a small burden lifted off his massive shoulders. He was now shouldering one less burden, so he was feeling considerably better than normal. He wasn't ready to let his jinchūriki know that his tailed beast had killed his parents yet though. Not yet anyway. **_'One day gaki...'_**

XxX

Naruto's eyes slowly fluttered open, the light from the window directly in front of him burning his eyes for but a second. He shut his eyes and slowly opened them again, letting them adjust to the light. He opened his eyes and found that he was in his bed, and it looked to be about midday according to the position of the sun.

He slowly pushed himself onto his elbows and looked around his room through scrunched up eyes. Everything seemed to be normal, he was in his pyjamas, his clothes were neatly folded up on his desk, and his weapons were all back on his workbench. He still felt very sweaty and dirty though, and scratched at his arm a bit. "Ugh, I could really use a nice shower about now."

He slowly swung his feet over the side of the bed and trudged out of his room with a fresh set of clothes in his one hand and a towel in the other. Locking the bathroom door behind him, he untied the bandana around his arm and placed it on the small table beside the sink along with the silver key around his neck. He threw off his pyjama top and was about to drop his pants when he stared intently at his navel. 'I wonder...' He channeled a small amount of chakra and absently poked at his stomach, looking on in fascination as an intricate seal faded into view. It was the most incredible looking seal he'd ever seen, he told himself silently. 'I wonder who made this seal and sealed Kurama?'

He got no answer though, and decided to forget about in favour of going back to the shower. He'd shower up nice now and take it easy today, maybe go shoot a few arrows later that evening with Hikaru. Yeah, that sounded like a plan, he repeated sarcastically with a scoff. Him, take it easy... As if. He also had some things he wanted to change with his clothes wear though, so that would come first. 'And, maybe I should tell Shūhei about...' He slowly touched the seal that was still visible on his stomach, tracing the patterns with his finger tip. 'Nah, I-I think it would be best if I wait a little while before telling him. Yeah, just a little while...' Forgetting about that, he jumped into the shower and cleaned himself up. That was high up on his priorities at the moment.

XxX

Naruto had finished showering a little while ago and was sitting down at his desk with a needle and black thread in hand and piece of sash-cut cloth lying on the desk. He leaned back and placed the the needle back onto the table, looking at the handy work that he had done. He was surprisingly good with a needle and stitching things. Who would've figured that he would find a set of skills in the art of sewing. He smiled brightly down at the cloth though. It looked perfect. He had done a really good job with it as well; the cloth looked really authentic.

He stood up and retied his black bandana around his arm, putting the sewing needle and the thread back into a small box on the table. He stepped away from the table with cloth in hand and attached the sash securely to his right hip, smiling proudly. He would wear this sash now for the rest of his life, as a reminder to himself and to others of what he was, and that he wasn't ashamed of it one bit. Located on the sash was the Hakke no Fūin Shiki **(Eight Trigrams Sealing Style)** that was on his stomach. The seal that was keeping Kurama within him. He wouldn't go around blurting out that he was a jinchūriki, but if someone managed to figure it out and ask, he would answer them with pride instead of shame.

He slowly turned towards the mirror and grinned happily. 'So Kurama, what do you think, huh? I think it looks pretty cool. It sort of suits me y'know.' Naruto just felt Kurama nod his head, and that was all he needed to feel to know that Kurama liked it. He didn't like to get too much into the mushy stuff, and Naruto knew that. He turned away from the mirror and moved over to his work bench. He grabbed his quiver and strapped it securely to his back, as well as slinging his bow over his head and placing that on his back too. He picked up his trench knives and twirled them around his fingers a few times before pocketing them in his hip pouch that he attached earlier. Last but not least, he strapped his shuriken and kunai pouch to his thigh and gave himself a once over in the mirror. "Okay, now before I go out shooting with Hikaru later, it's about time that Shūhei and I have ourselves a little spar. It's been long since over due I think."

He placed his hands in his pockets and jumped out of his sliding door and onto the balcony railing. "Ah, what a beautiful day for a spar. I hope you're ready Shūhei, because here I come!" He jumped off the balcony in a perfectly-executed swan dive before disappearing in a swirl of leaves and shooting off in a rapid succession of shunshin's to find his friend. He was going to enjoy this. He could just feel it.

* * *

_Elsewhere in the forests of Tsuki no Kuni _**_(Land of the Moon)_**_..._

* * *

Shūhei was leaning up against the trunk of a tree with his hands behind his head and his feet crossed over, relaxing in the serenity of the quiet forest. He had been training a little earlier by the lake located to his left, working on a defensive Suiton **(Water Release)** jutsu to add to his arsenal of techniques. He had a couple of offensive ones that he was proficient with, but nothing to aid him defensively if the need ever arose.

Suiton **(Water Release)** was a very versatile chakra nature, and he loved it. It was perfect for him, but it confused many people with the way the jutsu's were performed. You could either manipulate an existing body of water, you could convert your chakra into water and expel it out your mouth, or you could pull the moisture out of the air and the nature around you to perform the jutsu. Now, manipulating an existing body of water was the best and easiest way to perform a Suiton **(Water Release)** jutsu. It took the least amount of chakra, and you would already have all the water you'd need to complete the jutsu effectively.

The second way was by converting your chakra into water. This would be an effective method if you would ever found yourself in an area that was devoid of any natural water source, cutting off your ability to utilise the first method of performing water jutsu. However, it was not without its drawbacks. It required a considerably larger amount of chakra to use this method, which was why many people who possessed a water natured affinity weren't able to excel in it as far as other chakra natures could, unless they were near a body of water. The amount of chakra necessary to effectively use this second method made it a little touch and go. It was only to be used in dire circumstances or with lower level water techniques, otherwise the drain on your chakra would be too great and could lead to a fatal outcome.

And the last method was by extracting the moisture straight out of the air and wildlife around you, utilising that for your water jutsu. This method was as effective as the first, and didn't have the severe chakra strains that the second method possessed. It was almost exactly the same as the first method, however you wouldn't need a body of water to use your jutsu's. But, once again, the drawback for this method was an ungodly amount of skill, as well as a certain amount of natural talent that was necessary to even **_think_** about trying to perform. The only person known to have been capable of this method was Senju Tobirama, the Nidaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato **(The Village Hidden in the Leaves)**. So, by default, this method was crossed off of Shūhei's list. For now, at least. He wasn't skilled enough yet, but he planned to be. One day...

He let out an exhausted yawn and stretched his limbs out, taking great pleasure in the clicking and popping of some of his bones. "Ah, now that hits the spo-..." He was cut off though by the sound of a blade whizzing through the air at high speeds, and immediately shot off to the left in an evasive roll, brandishing a kunai in his left hand and stopping in a crouch with his muscles taut. The offending kunai wedged itself hilt deep into the ground just in the position where his royal jewels were resting a second ago, and he narrowed his eyes in the direction the kunai came from. He was ready to spring into action and counter whoever had decided to mess with him. He'd show them that they decided to pick a fight with the wrong ninja.

That would've been the case, but his thoughts slowly turned from rage and anger to confusion and annoyance when a battle-ready looking Naruto dropped down into the clearing with a kunai spinning non-chalantly around his finger. "Hehe, sorry Shūhei, I didn't think you were going to be at the end of that kunai," he said cooly, looking straight into the teal-greens of his brunette buddy. "But I seem to have caught you at a good time, so how about a spar?"

Shūhei eased up in his stance a little and formed a tick mark upon hearing Naruto's opening statement. "You didn't think I'd be at the end of that kunai," he reiterated annoyingly, his patience running incredibly thin in record breaking time. Who could blame him though. He'd been relaxing in a most tranquil setting, everything about his previous resting place had just been perfect, and Naruto had gone and messed that up with a delightfully laidback look on his face. 'That son of a bitch. I'll kill him. I'll definitely kill him,' he thought in finality, making up his mind and speaking the words as if they were the untold future. "Oh, I'll give you a spar alright. Don't blink..."

And in a flash of steel, he let fly two kunai, both shooting through the air at an incredible speed. He was surprised though when they made contact with Naruto, but a lot less surprised when his friend disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving a wooden log that was stabbed with 2 kunai in his place. Shūhei didn't have much time to think though as Naruto came rushing in from a bush behind him, his arm drawn back to slash with a kunai in his hand.

They met in a clash of steel, sparks flying out every wich way as they battled for dominance with their kunai. "Hey, Shūhei, are we sparring here or are we having a tea party?" questioned Naruto sarcastically as he slowly started pushing Shūhei back in their battle of strength. "Kick it into gear would you?" Naruto grunted out, giving Shūhei a quick shove and then sending him flying with a roundhouse to the stomach.

Shūhei flew backwards and hit the ground once before he righted himself and landed back on his feet, his kunai out in front of him and ready for another attack. Shūhei smirked from his position and pulled out a fistful of shuriken. "Be careful what you ask for..." He threw the kunai in his one hand straight for Naruto and released his shuriken right after, sending Naruto left and right as he dodged the small barage of weapons.

Naruto dodged the weapons and rolled to the left, stopping in a crouch as he avoided the final shuriken. There was a sudden gust of wind and a spiral of leaves around him, but as soon as it started, it ended, and the leaves dropped to the ground around him. He looked all around the clearing, but was unable to spot his brunette friend. Shūhei was gone. 'Heh, clever. Using the leaves as a distraction to escape the immediate vicinity. Very clever indeed...'

The sound of rustling bushes caught his attention, and he turned his head with his kunai held in a reverse grip, ready to set off in a dash at Shūhei. A hand gripped at the wood of the tree from behind, and upon second glance, he noticed that it was rather bloody. Long, red hair became visible from behind the tree as the figure stumbled out from the cover of the tree, holding a hand over their bloodied chest that was riddled with slash marks and deep cut wounds. "N-Naruto... help m-me... please N-Naruto..."

Naruto squinted his eyes at the emerging figure for a second before his eyes widened and his arms dropped to his sides lamely. He recognised this woman. He had seen her many times before, but only in a picture. He had burned the image of her into his brain so that he would never forget her. This was... it was his... "Mom..." he breathed out, his body shaking in disbelief. He blinked back tears and stared at her for a while longer before realising that she was hurt and started running towards her. "Mom!" He was now running at full speed towards her, his heart beating wildly in his chest. She was hurt. He needed to get to her and try to help her. 'She could be dying! She's in terrible shape! She could be-...'

**_'Naruto, stop! This is a genjutsu. Release it now!'_** roared Kurama loudly from within Naruto's mind, watching the whole scene from his perched up position. He would've helped Naruto with the genjutsu by using his own chakra, but he and Naruto had never tried using his chakra before and had never trained with it. They hadn't even talked about it. But he didn't want to try it out until they had trained with it a little first. He didn't know what the effects would be if he decided to force his chakra through with this type and level of seal holding him back. There were still too many unanswered questions which he still wanted answered before he started trying to use his chakra with Naruto's.

Naruto came to an abrupt halt with tears in his eyes and looked towards his stomach. 'H-how sure are you Kurama?! That's my mother standing there! She's in trouble, she needs my help!' This was his mother, he had seen her only in his picture, and now she was standing right in front of him.

**_'Do not be a fool gaki! That is not your mother, now release the genjutsu and move, that friend of yours is about to land a hit on you! Trust me!'_** Kurama was now standing on all fours, an angry look on his face. He and his host would need to work on their trust it seemed. Although he was considered a demon and the worst of the tailed beasts, as well as the embodiment of hatred, he had changed, and he needed to let his friend know he could be trusted.

Naruto gritted his teeth and blinked back the rest of his tears, looking intently towards his mother. She was right there, her hand clutched at her bloodied stomach, her breathing ragged and a fearful look on her face. 'I... I trust you Kurama...' He took the kunai in his hand and brought it down into his thigh, the pain distorting the picture of his mother as she faded from view. Not the most elegant way to dispel a genjutsu, but effective nonetheless. He dropped to his hands and knees from the mental shock of the genjutsu and breathed raggidly as he stared at the ground where his 'mother' had been standing. 'Thanks, Kuram-...'

He was interrupted by a foot sweeping him up off the ground, knocking the air right out of his lungs. He was sent flying into the air, hanging there for a few seconds before a figure materialised above him and kicked him in the back towards the ground with a decent amount of force. His face made contact with the ground and a massive cloud of dust flew up around him as he was deposited in a small crater.

Shūhei dropped to the ground several meters away from Naruto and placed his kunai in a reverse grip. "I told you to be careful what you asked for didn't I?" he questioned cockily, smirking in the dust cloud's direction. "That was _Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu _**_(Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique)_**. I do feel a bit bad for using it on you. I know you aren't too good with genjutsus, and I heard you mumbling things about your mom..."

He looked to the ground at his feet for a second and lowered his kunai, feeling slightly regretful for what he did now. He didn't know his mother either, so he only wished that he could see her. And he had made Naruto see her, except she must've been in pretty bad condition because of the type of genjutsu he used. He felt horrible at the moment. "I... I'm sorry Naruto..."

_"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu _**_(Shadow Clone Technique)!"_** From within the dust cloud came 5 Naruto's, each one coming in at Shūhei prepped only with taijutsu. 2 Naruto's took to Shūhei's flanks and started sliding in when they got close enough, while 1 ran in and took off in a slide at Shūhei's legs from the front. By the time Shūhei realised that he was being attacked, he was already too far in to the 3-stage attack that he couldn't get out.

His eyes glanced to the incoming clones, but they were all already upon him. The clones from the slides all kicked him upwards into the air, knocking out most of the wind in his lungs. The fourth Naruto used one of the Naruto's on the ground as a spring board and jumped into Shūhei legs first, sending him higher into the air and knocking any further air in his lungs right out. The final Naruto had already taken to running up one of the largest trees and was already in the air, using the added force of gravity to plummet into Shūhei from above. The clone struck Shūhei in the back with both its legs and rode him all the way down until they reached the earth in a massive, dusty explosion.

The clones of Naruto dispelled in a cloud of smoke and the original Naruto dropped down from one of the trees and landed in the clearing with his trench knives drawn and held in reverse grips, blades at the ready to strike quickly. Shūhei stumbled out of the cloud of dust with his arm drawn over his stomach, a line of blood trailing down the side of his head. He dropped to the floor and kept a steady hand grasping at his stomach, a few ribs potentially broken from the blunt force of that last attack. "Don't apologise to me Shūhei. We're having a spar, so don't hold back." Naruto loosened his grip on the trench knives ever so slightly as he stared intently at Shūhei. "The whole reason I wanted to do this spar in the first place was so that we could get to know each others skills better. We're going to be competing in the Chūnin Exams soon, and you're more level headed than I am, so at times, you might know how to utilise my skills better than even I do."

Shūhei looked through squinted eyes at Naruto and gave a nod of his head as understanding inally dawned on him. "I understand. In that case..." he started, as he wrapped an explosive note around the grip of his kunai behind his back. "... let's start this up again!" He threw the kunai from behind his back straight at Naruto, intentionally aiming it a little more left to force Naruto to the right where there was a barricade of trees. The explosive note detonated in the spot where Naruto was standing only moments ago, having dodged it with a well timed roll to the right. Shūhei grinned to himself and began going through hand seals. 'Let's see how you like this one Naruto...' Ending on the Hare seal, he brought his right hand up next to his mouth and took aim at Naruto. _"Suiton: Mizurappa _**_(Water Release: Wild Water Wave)!"_**

A torrent of water raced towards Naruto in a thin stream, looking to do some intense damage to him if he remained in the jutsu's path. Unfortunately for Naruto though, he was still in mid-air from his evasive roll, so the jutsu hit him dead on and sent him careening into the trunk of a tree, his back indenting the wood and sending splinters of bark in every direction. Naruto fell onto his hands and knees, coughing up a small amount of blood. He had taken the full brunt of Shūhei's jutsu, and it had done his body quite a bit of damage. He coughed again and pushed himself back onto his feet, stumbling a couple of times before maintaining his balance.

"That's... more like it Shūhei," he panted out, gripping tightly on his trench knives once more. So this was Shūhei's true strength. Or a portion of it at least. Naruto had always known Shūhei was strong, and now he was starting to show it. They seldom ever trained together, and when they did, it was never anything too crazy like the sparring they were doing now. The only time they had trained together before was when they were learning an Academy required jutsu, and he couldn't really get a good read on Shūhei's skill from that.

Nevertheless, this was what he'd wanted right from the beginning; for Shūhei to come at him with everything he had. For this training to work, they needed to see the skills that each possessed so that they could better their teamwork. So he needed to pull out all his skills here. So, with that in mind, he reached back and unhooked his bow from around his body and pulled out an arrow, loading it into position to be fired. "Get ready Shūhei..." he said softly, drawing the arrow back its full length. This spar was only just beginning.

XxX

It wasn't long before nightfall encompassed Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)**, bathing the island in the soft white rays of moonlight from above. The moonlight shone through the canopy of the forest, illuminating the figures of Naruto and Shūhei as they sat back to back on the ground... or what was left of it. After the spar that had just taken place between the two shinobi in training, the once peaceful and stunning landscape of this particular clearing had been turned into the remnants of a battlefield. Craters littered the ground, ranging from all different sizes, but the most prominent being the human shaped ones. Fallen branches from trees all around were scattered across the forest floor, a healthy amount of leaves and splinters accompanying them. It left little to the imagination of the kind of battle that had taken place here not too long ago.

Naruto and Shūhei breathed heavily as they held each other up with their respective body weights. They'd just finished up with their spar, and decided that a small rest was in order before they headed back up to the castle. Shūhei's body was numb in most places, and he was sure that he was covered in bruises from head to toe. He had several small cuts and slashes all over his body, his clothes sporting several holes as well. Naruto was a lot less beat up, his cuts and bruises already beginning to heal up thanks to his Uzumaki lineage and nine-tailed furry tenant. His clothes also sported several holes, but that was no major train smash for the jinchūriki. He had plenty of spare clothes.

Naruto turned his head skywards and closed his eyes, letting the rhythmic motion of Shūhei's breathing send him into a content stillness. He was positively beat, and he was pretty sure that Shūhei was as well. "You're a lot more skilled than you let on, y'know," Naruto said evenly, breathing out softly as the cool breeze of the night ruffled the loose locks of his blonde hair. "I never knew you were that good."

Shūhei attempted a shrug, but his body was too exhausted and unresponsive to comply, so all he got was a slight move of the shoulders. He was way too tired to be the slightest bit embarrassed from the praise as well, just nodding his head softly as his teal-green orbs surveyed the star-filled night sky. "Yeah, well, we don't really train together, and I don't slack off most of the time like you do," he replied challengingly, a small smirk making its way onto his face.

Naruto frowned and turned his head slightly to the side, his eyes still remaining closed as he prepared to battle for his reputation. "Hey, who're you calling a slacker, you good for nothing ass?! I find you lounging around in the castle more often than not when I get home most nights!" Naruto refuted loudly, finding some energy to give his friend's back a small shove.

Shūhei's eyes narrowed as he continued to look up into the sky, listening to his friend's words and scoffing in annoyance. "Pfft, don't give me that crap. You lounge around in the castle just as much as I do, so if I'm an ass, then so are you."

"Whatever..." Naruto breathed, deciding to let Shūhei win this little scuffle for now. He just didn't have the desire to want to get into a fight with his friend now after just having had one. Heaving another soft sigh, he slowly rocked his body forward and pushed himself tiredly to his feet, giving Shūhei a small flick over the head. "Get up, it's time to head back. I'm sure Kakeru-ojiisan and Michiru-ojisan are starting to get worried." They'd gone back to the castle this late many times before, if not later on certain occasions, but the two elder male inhabitants of the castle would always wait up for the teens to return from their training sessions, refusing to go to sleep until all hands were accounted for. It was a reassuring action, and Naruto appreciated the sentiment, but it got a little annoying sometimes, like they were still being treated like kids. He shook his head though and flicked his friend over the head again.

"Hey, would you stop doing that?!" cried Shūhei indignantly, rubbing the spot at the back of his head softly. Seriously, if he was flicked on the back of the head one more time... "Try that again, and you'll lose that finger." His threat fell on deaf ears though as the blonde proceeded to flick the brunette again, the brunette unfortunately just not having the energy to put up any kind of a fight even though he had just made the threat to take action.

Naruto snickered softly but pulled Shūhei up from under his arm and gave himself a slight pat down to relieve himself of any dust. "Alright, alright, don't get your knickers in a knot. Anyway, come on, let's go. You're burning moon light," he said half seriously, moving Shūhei to his left so that he could prop his best friend over his shoulder and help carry him back to the castle. He unfortunately couldn't heal with as much speed as Naruto could, but he was fine with that.

Naruto was somewhat a freak of nature with his massive chakra reserves and increased healing ability. They just chalked that up to being hereditary, something he got from his parents. They preferred not to talk about their parents though. Both hadn't known either their father or mother, and Naruto wasn't even sure if Shūhei knew what they looked like. He at least had a picture of someone who he was sure was his mother. He could probably ask Kurama about it, but ultimately decided against it. He'd just carry on with life as normal.

It didn't take them terribly long to get back to the castle. Despite being thoroughly exhausted, they made good time and were trodding tiredly through the halls of the castle, Naruto almost completely dragging Shūhei now. "Ugh, Shūhei, you can't fall asleep yet! We haven't even made it to your room yet!" Naruto cried indignantly, shrugging Shūhei back onto his shoulder properly before he fell to the ground. 'Seems he's out like a light... and he's making me carry him.' His eyes held a certain amount of irritation in them before they took on a mischevious glint, the bangs of his hair overshadowing them momentarily. 'I think a little payback's in order... for making me carry him and for that little genjutsu stunt he pulled earlier...'

He balanced Shūhei on his back once again, freeing up both his hands as he put them into the cross hand seal and summoned a single shadow clone, substituting with his doppelganger and making sure it had its relayed orders. He grinned deviously as he watched the clone walk down the hall the rest of the way and disappear into Shūhei's room, snickering softly as he turned heel and made his way to the stairs and up to the next floor. 'Ah Shūhei... As a ninja, you should know to never let down your guard,' he thought victoriously, rubbing his hands together in a typically sinister way. Oh how he loved the art of pranking.

He went for a quick shower and walked back at a subdued pace until he reached his room, pushing the door open and walking in slowly. He turned his head slowly and looked back out his door, having just received the memories of his clone. 'It is done,' he thought evilly, closing the door to his room slowly. He gave one last peep out the door and let out an uncharacteristic cackle. Oh, this was going to be priceless.

* * *

_The next morning, Tsuki no Kuni _**_(Land of the Moon)_**_..._

* * *

It was early in the morning, the sun only just peeking its head up over the horison in the distance, not a breath of wind present at the current time of day. Shūhei's alarm wasn't set to go off for another two and a half hours at least, so his body curled a bit and he reigned in some more blanket, trying to keep the warmth locked in. His eyes shot open wide as saucers and his mouth fell agape though as the screech of a high pitched horn filled his entire world, breathing heavily as his heart raced from the rude awakening. Depsite his eyes being open as wide as they were, his vision was pretty hazy, and he couldn't make out much in the dim light of his room.

The noise continued to ring through his ears, and they soon felt like they were going to explode, the ringing becoming almost unbearable. He turned his head towards where the sound was coming from, his breathing still ragged and his heart still racing, only for his heart to stop as he looked to his left and then start up furiously once again. "AHHHH!" He let out a high pitched shrill, something that shouldn't have been possible for someone of his gender. Sitting in the bed next to him was a dummy with the mask of the Shinigami placed firmly over its face, but to Shūhei who had been so rudely awakened and who's mind was still in complete turmoil, he couldn't tell the difference, so he proceeded to leap up from his bed and right out his side, landing back-first on the floor and crawling backwards to get away from the most feared being he knew of. The Shinigami.

His heart continued to beat heavily in his chest, his breathing becoming increasingly more laboured as he backed away from his bed. "Ah, shit! Fuck me! What the fuck is going on?!" he cursed loudly, his head darting all over the place while his ears were still ringing from the horn, and now, his hands and ass paining like mad. He looked to the ground to where he was lying and found that his entire floor was covered in mouse traps, with a multitude of them now clamped tightly over various parts of his body, causing him immeasurable amounts of pain. His heart was racing too fast for him to stop though, and he continued backing away until he reached his door, throwing his hand up and looking for the door handle frantically.

He eventually found the door knob and pushed the door open, crawling backwards until he felt ice cold liquid pepper his body from above, sending his body to the next extreme of pain, causing his muscles to spasm and his body to jolt upright back onto his feet. After jumping to his feet, he turned heel and tried to run, his eyes still half closed from the water dripping into them; but he only succeeded in running body first into a massive sack of flour which had been placed there the night before by a certain blonde.

After smashing into the sack of flour, he slowly backed away and allowed himself several minutes to finally calm down, opening his eyes slowly and wiping away any flour that was around his eyes, spluttering as he choked on a small amount of the flavourless powder that managed to find its way into his mouth. He slowly shook his arms and the rest of his body, turning back to his room to see just what the fuck had happened.

He looked through his door, and found an alarm clock on the other half of his double bed, an alarm clock that was fitted with a massive blow horn. Then there was the dummy with the Shinigami mask on, which was strategically placed on the same side as the alarm clock so that he would see it when he tried to switch it off. He looked over all the mouse traps that were still lying all over the floor, some undisturbed while others were clamped shut on the ground or clamped shut to his body. An empty bucket of what was filled with ice cold water was lying in the middle of the door way, and then there was the sack of flour placed right outside his door. His head darted left and right, and he spotted a small tuft of blonde hair outside his window that disappeared in a puff of smoke the moment he eyed it. "There's no question," he muttered while spluttering out some more flour. "I'll kill him. You hear that Naruto! I'LL KILL YOU!"

* * *

_Meanwhile, elsewhere in Tsuki no Kuni _**_(Land of the Moon)_**_..._

* * *

Naruto was currently hopping from tree to tree, on his way to a new training ground he had found another day, firstly because he and Shūhei had destroyed their previous one with their most recent spar, and secondly, because Naruto didn't want to be found any time soon with the possibly irate Shūhei-... "...-hear that Naruto! I'LL KILL YOU!" Okay, the most definitely irate Shūhei; or maybe absolutely livid were the right words.

He landed on another branch and jumped off at the same time the memories of the clone he'd posted outside Shūhei's room flooded back to him, causing him to come close to losing his balance and falling to the ground as he laughed himself to tears. Shūhei's face had been priceless as he was woken up with the blowhorn, and once he got a look at the 'Shinigami', he took on a look of pure terror. It was the funniest thing he'd seen in years, and Kurama seemed to think so too, his cackling laugh echoing out through Naruto's mind. **_'You may not be that well versed in the ninja arts yet, but you sure know your way around a prank gaki,'_** Kurama praised, his mouth set into a toothy grin as he laughed uproariously at Naruto's prank.

'Hey, I'm not that bad a ninja,' he snapped back quickly, but his face immediately morphed into a shit-eating grin as he thought of the prank again. 'And thanks, the look on his face was priceless, wasn't it,' he thought excitedly, getting all giddy like a schoolgirl. He loved to pull pranks. It was one of his favourite pastimes. He would pulled pranks all over Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)**, hitting people of all shapes and sizes. Most of them were harmless, but he had exceptions for certain individuals, such as the soldier that had tried to kill Shūhei some 5 years ago. Of course, everyone knew that he was the one pulling the pranks, but nobody had ever been able to catch him or put him together with his pranks at the same time, so he was still to this day, 'at large', if you could call it that.

'You should feel honored Kurama. You're jinchūriki is the mightiest prankster in all of the elemental nations,' he thought confidently, smirking at that despite himself. He didn't like to talk big about himself, but this was just one of those things that he had no doubt about. He **_was_** the greatest prankster in all the elemental nations. It was as simple as that. **_'I do not doubt you on that front gaki. I will give you credit where credit is due, your pranks never cease to surprise me.'_**

Naruto absorbed the praise like a sponge and tuned back into the outside world, focusing on his path. He was still quite far away, but he planned to change that now. He thought that now was probably as good a time as any to try out something new he'd been thinking about. It was a variation he had thought up regarding the _Shunshin no Jutsu _**_(Body Flicker Technique)_**. The Shunshin was a high speed movement technique that allowed ninja to move short distances at almost untraceable speeds by using chakra to temporarily vitalise the body. Now, if he could move as fast as he could with just using his normal chakra, what could he accomplish if he used his wind natured chakra instead.

He'd taken the time to sit down and think long and hard about the effects, going so far as to do a little bit of research about such a technique in the library. He hadn't found anything in particular on what he was thinking about, but he had read about something similar. It was a jutsu that was utilised and made famous by the past and present Raikage of Kumogakure no Sato **(Village Hidden in the Clouds)**. Instead of wind chakra, they would use their lightning natured chakra and wrap it around their body like armour, which would ellectrically stimulate the user's nervous system so that they could move at unnatural speeds. The name of the technique wasn't known, and there wasn't much else that was said about it in the book, but if the Raikage had managed to do it with lightning chakra, then it should theoretically be possible with wind natured chakra.

Thanks to his clone training method, his proficiency with his elemental affinity was pretty strong without having finished the second step of his element's training. He had yet to find a waterfall to use, and with Shūhei's current state of mind from the recent prank, he'd most likely be unwilling to help him out for quite a while. At the very least, his ability with his wind natured chakra would be more than enough to try out his new version of the shunshin. The shunshin was only a D-rank technique, so he doubted he'd need any more mastery over wind nature to enhance it.

He focused his eyes back to the forest and stopped on the next branch. He proceeded to draw out his wind chakra, attempting to, like with his normal shunshin, vitalise his body with chakra, but with wind natured chakra instead. The effects were instantaneous, and he immediately felt a dramatic decrease in his overall weight. His entire body was covered in an extremely thin layer of his wind natured chakra, giving him a soft blue glow with a tinge of white mixed in, giving him a sort of ghostly appearance.

He drew his arms back and forth a bit, testing out what this newly discovered phenomenon was capable of, and was thoroughly surprised by what he saw. His arms were moving at an extremely fast speed, and it almost felt like he wasn't moving them at all. The ease with which his entire body was moving was uncomprehendable. It felt as if a massive weight had just been removed from his body, and he had an odd sensation of feeling like he was floating, but looking to the ground, he found that his feet were planted firmly on the branch.

What also piqued his interest was that, each time he moved his arm, the wind chakra that was surrounding his arm would remain in that place for a little less than a second, leaving a somewhat blurred afterimage. He had never felt so great in his life, and this was just with his basic mastery of his element. His mind immediately began racing to what would be possible if he had a full mastery over his element, but pushed those thoughts to the side in favour of testing out this new jutsu he had discovered.

'Alright, so now that I know it's actually possible to surround myself with my wind chakra, let's see what it does to the shunshin.' Looking to a branch that was on the other side of a small clearing he was standing by, he shot forward 20 meters to the desired branch, but wound up smacking into the trunk of the tree several meters ahead of where he wanted to land. "Ugh, well that was weird. I went further than normal... or maybe I just moved faster than I normally did," he wondered out loud while rubbing at his forehead, trying to soothe the pain from overshooting his first attempt. He shrugged though and looked towards the next tree, shunshining towards it and landing with extreme difficulty, being careful not to overshoot it again. He landed in his spot and looked back to the branch he came from, eyeing it carefully as a blurry figure of himself standing there faded back out of view after a second of watching it. His wind chakra seemed to leave after images as well, and when he wasn't moving that fast or shunshining, his body almost looked like it was flickering as the wind chakra left behind after images.

"This is so cool," he squealed excitedly, staring at his arm as he threw it up and down repeatedly, watching in fascination as the after images left behind made it look like he was walking through a strobe light. "I wonder if anybody else has discovered this?" he idly thought, throwing a few practice punches as well as kicks, somewhat mesmerised by the after images. It was just so cool, he thought, that he was moving so fast as to leave behind after images. Obviously it wasn't all just his speed, but when it was used in conjunction with his wind chakra, it created the after image. 'Forget about training on _Fūton: Reppūshou _**_(Wind Release: Gale Palm)_** today, I'll have my clones do that. I'm gonna see how far I can go with this, and then I'll need to think of a name for it later. Shūhei will never be able to catch me again,' he thought gleefully, taking satisfaction in that. He wasn't looking forward to when he got home and Shūhei got a hold of him. That wasn't going to be a fun time. He set off with his training in mind, eager as ever to get stronger. With this little trick he'd just learned, he was planning to start working a lot more on his speed. If nobody could touch him or catch him, then he'd be more than strong enough to take on whoever was thrown his way.

He let the wind chakra covering his body dissipate, letting out a laboured breath as he did so and holding himself up with 1 hand against the trunk of the tree beside him. "Damn, pumping out this much wind chakra at a time for as long as I did... is really exhausting," he thought between a pant, sweat instantly materialising on his face and neck as the wind chakra faded away. The technique of combining the shunshin with his wind chakra offered him great speeds it seemed, but at his current mastery of wind chakra, he wasn't going to be able to maintain it for too long. It seemed that it wasn't without its drawbacks, but he was sure that he could reduce those drawbacks significantly with enough training. He'd just need more practise with the technique to get his body more accustomed to the strain, and whenever he found a waterfall, he'd need to practise more with his element to make using this much wind chakra less taxing. The second stage of wind manipulation; the cutting of a waterfall with your wind chakra; would help to increase the strength and amount of wind chakra you could create, as well as increase the amount of time you could constantly expel wind natured chakra.

'Suppose I still have quite a long way to go then,' he thought tiredly, breathing heavily as he regained his breath. Kurama decided that moment to make himself known again, and nodded his head sagely. **_'I have no doubt that the technique you have accidentally developed is very interesting, and it has the possibility to be so much more; but, until you acquire further mastery over your elemental affinity, you will never be able to use this technique to its fullest potential.'_**

Naruto nodded in agreement, having come to somewhat of the same conclusion. **_'But, nevertheless gaki, you have stumbled upon a treasure by creating this technique. It could prove truly formidable in the future.'_** Naruto smiled bashfully, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment as he absorbed the praise like a sponge. 'Ah, you don't have to say that y'know. It's not that great,' he thought timidly, playing down just how great of a technique it could be. All it needed was a little... No, scratch that. All it needed was **_a lot_** of practise, and it would certainly start turning heads. Kurama rolled his eyes and lay his head back down on its usual resting place. **_'That annoying verbal tic is as prominent as ever I see...'_**

Naruto waited a little longer until he was breathing normally again, and proceeded to move on to his previous destination before he tried out his new technique again. He'd create 20 shadow clones once he got there and have 10 of them work on his other Fūton **(Wind Release)** jutsu, and then he'd take the other 10 with him to work on his new jutsu. He still wasn't too sure what limitations there were for using his shadow clones to help him train, so he didn't want to overdo it. 50 clones last time had left him extremely exhausted, and it had literally knocked him out. He was going to try a little less this time.

He didn't really have a need to train any faster either, and he was training 20 times faster than normal with the shadow clones he was using now already. When the time came when he was pressed for time, he'd see how far he could push it, but now was not that time. He still had nothing **_but_** time. For the moment, at least.

* * *

**_AN: So, that's chapter 2, and we see Naruto delving a little further into his elemental manipulation. The Ch_****_ūnin Exams are coming up soon, and the next chapter we'll see another small time skip to when they leave Tsuki to head off to Konoha, so keep your fingers crossed._**

**_On another note, nobody has been able to answer the first 2 questions that I posed back from the first chapter, so I'll write them again here to see if anyone can answer them. I'm generally interested to see if you guys can figure it out. So the first one was who did I model _****_Shūhei's character off of, and the second question was where did I base the small fight scene from the market square where Naruto and _****_Shūhei are still 8 from._**

_**Well, back to something important, I'm starting with exams this week at Univ, so chapters will most likely be scarce for about 2 weeks, but depending on how well I handle them, I might find time to write up another one during that time, so don't panic. With that, thanks for reading, till next time...**_


	3. Departure

**_AN: Hey guys! So here's the next chapter and instalment for Tsuki's Maverick, exams were taking place for me, and exams are still taking place for my beta, so unfortunately this chapter is not beta'd. But, rest assured, he will be finishing exams soon, and as soon as he does, I will be uploading the beta'd chapter for your viewing pleasure. _**

**_But, back to the chapter, I hope you enjoy it, and please read the AN at the bottom afterwards, important information that you guys should know. Enjoy..._**

**Disclaimer: All things Naruto and characters of Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

_Chapter 3: Departure_

* * *

"Normal talking"

'Normal thinking'

**_"Biju/Summon talking"_**

**_'Biju/Summon thinking'_**

* * *

_In the forests of Tsuki no Kuni __**(Land of the Moon)**__, 1 and a half months later..._

* * *

_"Fūton: Repūshou __**(Wind Release: Gale Palm)**__!"_ shouted Naruto with his hands clapped together as he performed the concussive wind jutsu again, a compressed gale of wind shooting forth and smashing into the two clones in front of him, sending them flying into the tree at the edge of the clearing. They smashed into the trunk of the tree with an audible thud, dispelling the moment they hit and reverting back into smoke from the damage.

Naruto jumped back to the other side of the clearing, narrowly avoiding a hail of kunai that struck the area he had been standing in a moment ago, before said kunai went up in a small explosion, revealing them to be covered in explosive tags. 'Heh, looks like my clones are going all out this time and staying back, trying to attack from a distance. Big mistake...'

He channelled chakra into the brown bracer that was now worn around his left forearm, his bow being summoned from the storage seal inscribed on it in a puff of smoke. He gripped his recurve bow tightly and channelled another small amount of chakra into the thumb ring located on his right thumb, an arrow wrapped with an explosive tag summoning into his hand with another small wisp of smoke. With practised ease, he drew the arrow back at great speed and let it fly up into the trees above at the other side of the clearing, pulling his right hand into the Ram seal and grinning widely. "Katsu."

The arrow exploded in a shower of leaves and splinters, the debris falling slowly to the ground as a cloud of smoke enveloped the canopy above the clearing. Sending a little more chakra into his thumb ring, he summoned three ordinary arrows this time, loading them all into his bow and pulling them back simultaneously, flowing wind chakra into all three to increase their speed and penetrating power to compensate for the difficulty of firing them all at once. Just as he'd expected, the last three clones that had been hiding jumped out from the top of the trees all at once, each with their kunai drawn and ready to attack. Naruto grinned again and let fly with all the arrows, nailing each clone in the torso area and dispelling them all at once.

He resealed his bow into his bracer and quickly fetched each of his arrows that were salvageable, sealing those back into his thumb ring as well. He had gotten the idea to seal his arrows and bow into the bracer and thumb ring from Korega-taichou one day, who'd suggested that it would give him better mobility if he didn't have to lug the bow and quiver on his back. And boy had he been right. His agility wasn't as hampered now either, and he could conceal the fact that he was skilled in long range combat this way as well.

How it worked was he had drawn a simple storage seal into his arm bracer, a seal that was taught to all upcoming shinobi at the Getsugakure **(Hidden Moon)** Academy. He had done the same for the thumb ring, except he had sealed the normal arrows into one side of the thumb ring, and then he'd drawn another seal on the opposite side that contained all his arrows armed with explosive notes. It allowed him to carry more arrows with him this way as well. It was limited to as many as he could make actually, and he'd gotten his clones to make him quite the sum of arrows - man he loved that jutsu.

He jumped up to the branch and turned south, vitalising his body with wind chakra and shooting off to the shore in a burst of speed, leaving behind an after image of himself that remained for a second before it faded into nothing but a small breeze of air. He had gotten about as good as he could with the technique, which he had taken to simply calling _Fūton: Shunshin __**(Wind Release: Body Flicker)**_. If he wanted to improve upon the technique he'd developed, he'd need further training in his element, which he hadn't been able to get due to the absence of waterfalls on this island.

But his current proficiency with his wind natured shunshin wasn't what was on the blonde's mind at the moment. He landed on the sandy shoreline of Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)** with a wisp of dust trailing behind him, turning to the palm trees that ran along the shoreline and sidling up against one with his back. He looked out across the ocean from his favourite spot for what was going to be the last time for quite a while.

He and Shūhei were scheduled to be leaving for Hi no Kuni **(Land of Fire)** early tomorrow morning, where they'd arrive at Degarashi Port in Cha no Kuni **(Land of Tea)** and be escorted by shinobi of Konoha to their village by foot. He was a little anxious about leaving his home if he was honest; he hadn't left the island for as long as he'd been alive, and now he was leaving for the first time to go participate in the Chūnin Exams. The fact that Shūhei was going to be right beside him every step of the way was reassuring to say the least. They'd be experiencing life off of Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)** together, and he was glad it was Shūhei going with him.

He took in a deep breath of air and sighed out softly, closing his eyes as he just listened to the sound of the crashing waves belting the sandy shores with water. There was nothing quite as relaxing as just listening to the sounds of the waves roaring. Watching the clouds float by was a welcomed addition to the relaxation process, but sometimes, just closing his eyes and listening to the sea was enough for him.

Although he was feeling slightly anxious over leaving, his excitement for finally making it to the Chūnin Exams was barely containable. He was literally bouncing off the walls, the anticipation of fighting so many strong opponents giving him goose bumps. The good kind though. He was also excited about trying out the foreign cuisine and seeing what the food was like in Hi no Kuni **(Land of Fire)**. He was going to be looking out for one thing and one thing only when he got there. Ramen. What was their ramen going to taste like, and was it going to be better than what the castle's chef's prepared. He sincerely hoped so. Because that would mean he'd be eating some pretty amazing ramen soon if it was more delicious than what the chef's here managed to cook up each time. And the ramen from the castle was top notch.

He heard the sound of crunching sand, and didn't even bother to crack open an eye lid, already knowing exactly who it was. Having spent as much time as he had with him, he was pretty attuned to the feel of his chakra. He was no sensor, but he'd been around this chakra for long enough to be able to feel it out within a reasonable area. Shūhei plopped down on the sand beside him, remaining in a sitting position as he slowly raked his hands through the soft white sand of the beach, repeating the process over and over. "I knew I'd find you here. You're always here if you can't be found anywhere else," Shūhei said softly, his voice uncharacteristically subdued.

Naruto 'hmmd' in response and continued to sit in silence on the beach front, letting Shūhei continue to voice his thoughts. "The Chūnin Exams are finally here. It's been a long and windy road, but we finally made it," the brunette started, looking out at the horizon as he continued to draw circles aimlessly in the sand with his fingers. "And we'll be leaving Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)** tomorrow for the first time..." Ah, so that's what he was feeling slightly nervous about, Naruto mused. "Do you really think we're ready for this?" he asked tentatively, turning his head to look back at the whiskered blonde.

Naruto took a deep breath and let out another soft sigh, propping himself up on his elbows as he looked at Shūhei. "Do you trust me Shūhei?"

Shūhei didn't even blink and answered in the span of a second, not needing any more time to think of his answer. "With my life, you know that..."

Naruto nodded his head at Shūhei and then looked back out towards the ocean front. "Well, I truly believe more than anything that we are ready for this," he said sincerely, his voice uncharacteristically soft. He was speaking the honest-to-Kami truth here, and he meant every word he said. "This is what we've been training for since we started at the Academy. If we're not ready by now, we'll never be ready..." He took another soft breath of air and looked back to Shūhei. "If you start doubting yourself and your own abilities, it'll be over before you can even get the chance to start. Juts believe in yourself and have a little faith. Believe in **_me_**..." he said earnestly, his face a mask of unbridled confidence.

Shūhei was left almost speechless by the sheer determination radiating in Naruto's blue orbs, and managed to nod his head with a small smile, his voice momentarily lost on him. Naruto nodded at Shūhei's answer and looked back out towards the all-blue. "Let's just enjoy the view for a little longer," he said, the contentment he was feeling at the current situation leaking through his words. "It'll be a while before we get to see the ocean again."

Shūhei stared at Naruto for a little bit longer, his curiosity getting the better of him. Naruto seemed... different, almost more mature, if he had to try and explain it. He was being oddly serious and calm about the whole situation. He seemed more than confident in their abilities to participate in the Chūnin Exams, and that confidence, that belief that they were more than ready, caused Shūhei's lips to curl upwards into a knowing smile as he gazed up into the skies at the fluffy white clouds that were floating on by, sitting with Naruto in a comfortable silence for the remainder of the afternoon. 'I believe in you Naruto...'

* * *

_The next morning, on the seas of the Kanashii__Ocean..._

* * *

Naruto sat at the head of the ship, the cold ocean winds blowing into his face as they raced forward towards Cha no Kuni **(Land of Tea)** at incredible speeds, their destination being Degarashi Port. The trip that he and Shūhei were embarking on now with the current captain and crew would be, under normal circumstances, an extremely long trip, close to around 20 days, if not more. But with their current heading, they were catching immense tail winds and were sailing with the powerful current of the ocean, allowing their boat to travel at a continuous pace of around 40 knots, an almost unheard of speed for a sail boat to be travelling at, so they'd be arriving in around three days.

Once they arrived at Degarashi Port, they would be escorted by a team from Konoha and would traverse the rest of the way on foot. It would be about a three to four day trip if they moved at a decent pace, and once they arrived in Konoha, there would be approximately one month left before the start of the Chūnin Exams, in which time they would become accustomed to their provisional team.

A spray of water from the ocean unpleasantly broke him out of his thoughts, so he decided to rather run up the main mast and sit atop the crow's nest to avoid any more unwanted surprises. His thoughts travelled back to this morning just before they'd left, as well as the goodbyes that he had shared with his makeshift family...

_(Flashback)_

_It was early in the morning, the sun still hiding behind the horizon as Naruto finished up the last bit of packing for his long journey to Hi no Kuni __**(Land of Fire)**__. His bag was fully packed with all the clothes he'd need, and he had made several storage scrolls for most of his supplies and weapons, everything he was hauling with him fitting snugly into his backpack._

_He had made sure to stock up on all of his ninja supplies; like shuriken and kunai; from the Academy, because anything he'd need when he arrived at Konoha would need to be bought, and he'd rather not spend all his money on weapons where it could rather be used for food and gifts for himself and people from Tsuki. _

_He walked over to his bed and retrieved his metal box with all his precious belongings from his birth, opening it up with the silver key and making sure everything was still where he'd left it. He pulled out the 'Tales of a Gutsy Ninja' book from within, depositing that safely within his back pouch so that he could keep it close. He'd definitely be reading this book a few times when he was there, and he'd like to have something with him that could keep him occupied if the need ever arose. After retrieving the book, he took one last look at the photo of his mother before placing it on top of the pellet drum. He locked the box and placed it carefully back beneath his mattress, hiding the key back around his neck and in his shirt. _

_'Okay, now that that's taken care of; one last check to make sure I've got everything and I can head downstairs.' He grabbed the plain black bandana he used to wear off of his desk and tied it around his head, fastening it tightly and making sure to secure any stray bangs. Those things could really get in the way during a fight, but he liked his longer hair too much to cut it, so opted for the next best thing... Restrain it. A lot easier said than done, but a bandana seemed to work, so he did just that. _

_After tying on the bandana, he picked up the hitai-ate he and Shūhei had received in advance due to their much earlier departure, and fastened it around his upper left bicep, making sure that the crescent moon symbol for Getsugakure __**(Hidden Moon)**__ was prominently displayed for all who met him to see. _

_The last two things lying on his desk were his custom made sash that was embroidered with the Hakke no Fūin Shiki __**(Eight Trigrams Sealing Style), **__which he fastened tightly around his waist; and then his pair of trench knives, which he placed carefully into his back pouch before shouldering his backpack and heading out his door, switching off the lights behind him. 'Alright, we're just about done here. After we say goodbye, we'll be heading to Konohagakure no Sato __**(Village Hidden in the Leaves)**__. We've finally made it...'_

_He turned to his right and made his way down the stairs, catching Shūhei on the way down as they walked together to the bottom floor. They walked in amiable silence until they reached the massive oak doors of the castle that were on the bottom floor, Michiru-ojisan, Kakeru-ojiisan and Hikaru all waiting for them at the bottom. Even Korega-taichou had shown up. _

_Naruto and Shūhei walked up together, bright smiles on their faces as they stood before their farewell party. "Hey guys, you know you didn't need to wake up so early just to see lil 'ol me off to the Chūnin Exams," Naruto started with a chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to ease the apprehension that was lingering in the air. _

_All of the farewell party were more than a little afraid for the duo. They'd heard their fair share of stories that revolved around the Chūnin Exams, and not all of it was pretty. It was a glorified battle of shinobi, where neighbouring nations could freely attack other nations without the threat of repercussions looming over their heads. Many of the participants were out solely to spill the blood of supposed enemies who were attending this year's Chūnin Exams as well, so it was safe to say that they were all a little bit antsy for their adopted family members. _

_Kakeru was the first to speak, his visage etched in a soft smile as he looked on warmly at the two boys. "You two have grown up so much from the little boys I met in the market square that fateful day some five years ago. You've grown into fine young men, and I wish you luck during your exams," he said warmly, his voice laced with pride. "You are carrying the name of Tsuki on your shoulders, so do us proud."_

_Naruto and Shūhei both nodded at this with big grins in play. "Don't you worry about that Kakeru-ojiisan," said Shūhei quickly, extending his hand into a thumbs up. "We'll make Tsuki no Kuni __**(Land of the Moon)**__ proud, I can promise you that."_

_Naruto looked towards Shūhei with a degrading look in his eyes, wandering just what he thought he was doing. "Did you seriously just give a 'thumbs up'," he asked in shock, shaking his head in humiliation. "Don't be doing that shit-..."_

_"Language boys!" cut in Korega-taichou, causing Naruto's eyes to widen for a fraction of a second before his cheeks took on a red tinge and he sputtered slightly. _

_"I-I mean, don't do that stuff while we're away, it's not cool y'know," he muttered, averting his gaze from Korega's general direction. _

_Shūhei snorted at that and folded his arms with a mirthful look in his eyes. "Ha, says the guy with a verbal tic. Practice what you preach, eh Naruto-baka," he said sarcastically, sniggering when Naruto's face tinted a deeper shade of red and his sputtering became more pronounced. _

_Michiru let out a hearty chuckle as he watched the exchange, his face a mask of brotherly love. He thought of these two younger boys as younger brothers who he needed to look out for, and looking at the two as they traded remarks back and forth in their usual banter, he couldn't help but feel reassured that they were going to be fine. "You must enjoy yourselves Naruto-kun, Shūhei-kun. Hi no Kuni __**(Land of Fire)**__ is a beautiful country, so make the most of this visit. We'll be sure to come around and watch you in the final stages," he added with a knowing wink, a toothy grin playing on his lips as he pulled both boys in for a bone-crunching bear hug._

_"Ugh, M-Michiru-ojisan, I can't b-breathe..." gasped Naruto, taking in a massive breath of air as Michiru let go with a sheepish chuckle, holding his hand over his mouth in embarrassment. "Ah, that's better. And don't worry, we'll be looking for you in the stands on the day of the finals," he answered cockily, giving Shūhei a way-too-hard pat on the back that caused him to jolt forward and cough sporadically. "Right Shūhei?"_

_Shūhei just did his best attempt at an affirmative nod, holding his hand over his chest as the coughing fit racked his body. His coughing fit was miraculously put on hold though as the sounds of crying filled his ears, and he looked forward to see Hikaru's eyes filled with tears from where he was standing, clutching tightly onto the bow that had been given to him by Naruto and Shūhei for his last birthday. "Hey, Hikaru, what's the matter? We're not leaving for good you know," he said softly, his eyes a mirror of concern as he looked down fondly at the small little boy he could most probably call brother. _

_"I-It's just that... people get k-killed in the Chūnin Exams. They're so dangerous, and if you guys d-died I... I'd..." his explanation was cut off as another fit of sobs began rack at his small body, tears beginning to well up in his eyes, that massive inexplicable lump in the back of his throat making itself known. He felt two pairs of hands grab at his shoulders and he looked up through his fogged pair of glasses as Naruto and Shūhei kneeled before him, both with a hand on one of his shoulders respectively. _

_"Hey, there's no need to cry for us Hikaru," started Shūhei, putting on the most reassuring smile he could muster. _

_"Yeah, Shūhei's right," continued Naruto as he grinned foxily. "There's no way we're gonna die. That's not at all possible when we'll be the one's winning this thing," he stated confidently without a trace of deception or doubt in his voice. He looked earnestly into Hikaru's eyes and they softened as he spoke his next words. "I give you my word Hikaru. And I never go back on my word..."_

_Hikaru looked between Shūhei's and Naruto's faces, testing their expressions for any sign of deceit, before he threw himself forward and began crying tears of joy, his body shaking with sobs once again. "I-I'll hold you t-too that Naruto-niisan. I'll be cheering for you and Shūhei-niisan from in the s-stands, so make sure to look for me, okay."_

_"It's a promise Hikaru," said Shūhei, standing up and ruffling the boy's hair, Naruto standing up with him. They took a deep breath and turned back to face everyone as a guard appeared at the massive doors and announced the arrival of the crew and ship that they would be travelling on. "Looks like it's finally time."_

_Naruto and Shūhei gave one last wave to their makeshift family and proceeded off with the guard towards the harbour-side of town where the port was located. It wouldn't be long now, he remembered thinking, as they moved at a somewhat speedy pace to the docks. 'We'll see you soon, Hikaru...'_

_(Flashback End)_

Making himself comfortable atop the crow's nest, he reached into his back pouch and pulled out his all-time favourite book, 'Tales of a Gutsy Ninja'. He opened it at the beginning and proceeded to start reading it again. No matter how many times he reread the book, it never dulled at all, and it always managed to strike at his emotions each time he read it, because one, it was a gift from his parents and he was named after the hero of the book; and two, because the way the hero acted with such fierce determination at conquering the curse that was hatred was so inspiring, always managing to send goose bumps up and down his body without fail.

The book wasn't as well written as most other books, having been this author's first book, but it was the best book he'd ever had the pleasure of reading, and it would win in his books ten times out of ten. "So, what're you reading there?" questioned Shūhei from behind him, breaking him from his book and interrupting his quiet time.

Naruto didn't bother looking up and turned the page, his eyes continuing to roam along the words printed on the pages. "A book," he answered simply, ignoring the twitch of Shūhei's eyebrow as he narrowed his eyes at Naruto.

"No shit Sherlock," he said sarcastically with a deadpan, deciding to rephrase the question this time. "I meant... what's the book about?"

Naruto once again turned the page and took his time answering, his eyes never leaving the white pages. "It's about the tales... of a gutsy ninja," he replied bluntly once again, flashing the cover at his friend quickly and causing Shūhei to sigh and throw his hands up in frustration.

"Ugh, just forget it. You're in one of your funny moods again, so I'll just leave you. Enjoy your book," he stated annoyingly as he jumped back down to the main deck, moving inside to the sleeping quarters to catch up on the sleep he missed by having to wake up so early that same morning. His grumbling could be heard from all the way inside the cabin, and it was music to Naruto's ears.

Naruto grinned playfully as he turned to the next page, taking great satisfaction in annoying the hell out of Shūhei. **_'As much as I'm loathe to admit and agree with that friend of yours, you are acting a little stranger than usual. Any particular reason why?'_** questioned Kurama curiously, rolling around in the grass that he loved so much.

'Heh, I could ask you the same thing fur ball,' retorted Naruto, smirking in amusement as he looked within his mind to the fox that was currently playing around in the meadow. Kurama just scoffed and continued with his activity, obviously not caring what a human thought. 'Well, if you must know, I'm just excited, and... I just didn't feel like telling Shūhei where this book came from. I'd rather just annoy him than lie to him,' he thought truthfully, the fox nodding its head at that. It was a book he'd found that was from his parents, and he didn't really want anyone to know that.

Naruto turned back down to his book and pulled out a trench knife from inside his pouch, twirling it absently around his finger as he continued to read his book. The sun was bearing down on him from above, with the cool wind of the sea blowing into him from ahead, counteracting the heat from the sun and creating the perfect balance. He couldn't wait to see what lay in store for him and Shūhei once they arrived at their destination. The anticipation was just too much for him to handle now.

* * *

_Cha no Kuni __**(Land of Tea)**__, Degarashi Port..._

* * *

Naruto awoke with a loud yawn, stretching his body out in all directions until the satisfying feeling of bones clicking rang true through his ears, eliciting a content sigh from the blonde Uzumaki. There was a considerable amount of hustle and bustle going on outside from what he could hear, and it felt like the boat had stopped moving. Had they finally made it? He quickly threw on his sleeveless shirt and trousers, pulling on his shinobi sandals along with his bracer next. He attached his hitai-ate to his bicep and tied on his bandana, fixing on his sash right after that. Before he knew it, he was already repacked and ready to move, so he shot out of the room in a jog and made his way back to the main deck, breaking out into a wide smile as he reached the open air again. They had made it. They were in Degarashi Port.

It was a fairly small harbour for being the most well known port town in Cha no Kuni **(Land of Tea)**, but despite its size it looked like a reasonably nice place to stay. There was the main village up ahead and to the left, whereas a market that comprised of vendors each selling different kinds of food and items was to the right, adjacent to the docks that the ships would arrive at. People would probably buy the goods right off the boarding ships and then sell them at the markets, he surmised as the reason for having the market right next to the harbour. There was a sizeable mountain towards the left of the village, and you could make out a few fields of produce a little ways to the back.

"Ah, I see you finally decided to wake up," came the voice of his long time friend Shūhei, dropping down from the mast above in front of Naruto and breaking him out of his thoughts. "That's a shame. I was just about to come give you the Shūhei-special wake up call," he finished cheekily, grinning from ear to ear at the prospect. Although, truth be told, he said he would wake Naruto up... he wouldn't dare. The blonde's pranks were too much of a threat to keep him at bay. He'd learned his lesson, and made sure not to go too far when messing with his best friend.

Naruto grinned back and took a deep breath of this new air. It wasn't as salty as Tsuki's air, despite still being right next to the sea, but he could smell and taste the difference quite clearly. He turned to the brunette with an excited look on his face and pointed out towards the village. "So, do you know where we're supposed to be meeting these guys from Konoha," Naruto asked, ready to move on and to the village hosting this year's Chūnin Exams. He couldn't care less at the moment about what there was to experience in this country. Maybe on the way back, he had as an afterthought, but right now, he wanted to get to the Leaf Village.

"I'm not sure. Nami-sensei said that we were just supposed to disembark the ship and wait in the harbour. She said they'd find us," he replied with a casual shrug as he and Naruto walked off the boat and into the market area at a sedate pace.

"Okay, well you wait here then, I'm gonna go get us some breakfast." With that, Naruto leapt off into the crowd, disappearing from view as he searched for a suitable breakfast. Shūhei was surprised that he didn't need to wait longer than three minutes before Naruto had returned, a platter of six onigiri in his hand with the two canteens of fresh water in the other. "Here," he offered, handing Shūhei the bottle of water and setting the platter down as they took a seat on a couple of boxes lying around the port.

Shūhei took on a thoughtful look as he swallowed his last rice ball, staring at Naruto with a confusedly before that slowly morphed into irritation as he narrowed his eyes at the blond. "Hey, I was just thinking, how'd you pay for this stuff when I've got all the money?"

Naruto though pretended not to hear him and finished the last bite of his rice ball, deciding to change the subject instead. "So, do you know what these Konoha shinobi look like? Maybe we should go look for them around the town?" he pondered out loud, taking a sip of water and looking back at the boat they'd arrived in that was readying up to leave and move on to its next destination.

"Hey, don't try change the subj-..." began Shūhei, only to be cut off midsentence as a figure slowly overshadowed the two, stopping in front of them with his hands on his hips.

"Well, you won't have to go looking very far," came a deep-ish voice from in front of them. The voice belonged to a man with long, spiky black hair who had black eyes and a goatee. He had a strip of bandage running across the bridge of his nose, and he wore the standard attire of a Konoha shinobi, complete with a flak jacket and a hitai-ate tied around his forehead with the Konoha symbol emblazoned on the metal. There were also two bladed weapons strapped to his back.

Another man landed next to him in the next instant, this one having brown hair that was combed down to cover his right eye. He wore his hitai-ate like a bandana, and wore the standard Konoha shinobi outfit which went all the way up to his chin. "My name's Kamizuki Izumo, chūnin of Konohagakure **(Hidden Leaf)**, and this is my partner Hagane Kotetsu, also of chūnin rank," spoke the shinobi that had just landed, smiling down at the duo.

Naruto was the first to react, jumping to his feet and placing his hands behind his head in his usual manner. "Nice to meet you. My name's Naruto, genin of Getsugakure **(Hidden Moon)**, and this is my partner, Shūhei, also of genin rank," Naruto mimicked with a wide grin on his face, introducing himself much in the same way Izumo had just introduced himself moments ago.

Kotetsu chuckled softly and grinned down at the two shinobi. "Well, now that introductions are over with, what do you guy's say we begin our journey? It's going to be about a three to four day trek at the most, but depending on how fast you guys can go, and for how long you can keep it up will determine if we reach Konoha sooner than we expect."

To be honest, the two chūnin weren't expecting much from the two genin. Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)** was considered even less than one of the minor hidden villages for a reason; not counting the fact that they didn't even have a hidden village, but rather only an academy and administration building where missions were handed out; so to expect a pair of genin from Getsugakure **(Hidden Moon)** to be able to keep up for too long was a bit of a push. 'We're most likely looking at a four day trip at the least,' Izumo deduced, trying to size up the two but finding nothing special about them.

Naruto jerked his thumb to his chest and gave the two chūnin a confident grin, standing up a little straighter and puffing out his chest slightly. "Heh, don't worry about us, we'll be able to keep pace with you guys no problem. Well... if one of us ends up having a problem, it'll be my friend here. He's always had less stamina," he said as he pointed to Shūhei at his right with a cocky smirk.

Shūhei formed a tick on his forehead and his cheeks tinged the slightest shade of red, his fists balling at his sides as he fought to save some face in front of the two chūnin. "You don't know what you're talking about Naruto! I'll be able to keep up just fine," he huffed indignantly, crossing his arms and turning away slightly to face in the opposite direction.

Naruto slowly turned towards Kotetsu with a smug grin and cupped his right hand over around his mouth, mouthing the words 'Not a chance' to the chūnin, causing said chūnin to chuckle softly, a few snickers escaping his mouth.

Kotetsu reigned in his laughter and turned towards the bandana-clad boy with a wide grin in play as he regarded the genin from yonder. "You know whiskers, you're alright," he said with a chuckle, causing the now proclaimed 'whiskers' to grin even wider, exposing a few teeth.

Naruto held his fist out and shared a fist bump with the chūnin, the two sharing an odd 'friendship' moment as Izumo watched from the sidelines impatiently with a tapping foot.

"If you two are quite finished," Izumo started, garnering the attention of the present shinobi as he plastered on a momentary mask of seriousness. "I think it's just about time we leave. We're on a schedule here, and I'd hate to run late and get chewed out by Sandaime-sama. Besides, we're burning day light, so when you two are set..." he gestured to the two genin and watched as they shouldered their respective back packs, both nodding their heads at the brown haired chūnin. "Alright then, stay on our heels as best you can."

With that, he shot to the roof tops of the buildings and took to the trees towards the direction of the Hi no Kuni **(Land of Fire)** and Cha no Kuni **(Land of Tea)** border, setting a mild pace as they hopped from tree to tree. They stayed at this pace for a while before the loud voice of the bandana-wearing genin reached their ears, getting the two chūnin to turn around. "Hey, don't hold back on our account. I meant it when we said we'd be able to keep up, so if this is as fast as you're planning to go, then maybe we should set the pace," he asked with a shit-eating grin, Naruto's teeth glinting in the thin rays of sun that pierced through the somewhat thick canopy of leaves above.

Kotetsu grinned depsite the tacit insult that was veiled in that sentence. 'The kid's got balls, I'll give him that.' He turned his head to glance at his partner and gave him nod with a smirk firmly set on his features. "What do you say Izumo?"

Izumo smirked despite himself as well, not usually one to play into the hands of a teenager. "Cheeky brat. Alright Kotetsu, let's kick it up notch then." With the command given, they set off at a faster pace, darting through the trees at the behest of the genin they were charged with escorting. 'Careful what you wish for...' Izumo thought sadistically, an evil smile tugging at his lips as they bounded on forward at a swifter speed. He'd show that brat who he was taunting here.

XxX

The sun was slowly setting, its arc almost completed as it neared the horizon in the distance. The sky was a beautiful orange with a few wisps of yellow thrown in between, and the clouds looked as if they'd been stretched out as far as they could go by some other-worldly force. It looked like something out of a fairy tale.

In a clearing not too far passed the border of Hi no Kuni **(Land of Fire)** and Cha no Kuni **(Land of Tea)**, the forms of one chūnin Hagane Kotetsu and genin Uzumaki Naruto landed with a soft thud, the former looking no more worse for wear than usual while the latter was breathing noticeably more heavy than before, with several trails of sweat rolling down his forehead. They had been running for pretty much the whole day, with only several 15 minute breaks in between which they used to course correct and to rehydrate themselves. All in all it had been a pretty tiresome day if the genin had to admit, but his stubbornness prevented him from entertaining that thought too much.

Kotetsu regarded the genin who was standing with his hands on his knees, smiling down at him with a new found respect as he pulled out a canteen of water and placed it in whisker-faced genin's hands. "I gotta hand it to you kid. You weren't messing around when you said you'd be able to keep up with us," he said with a deep level of respect, admiring the young genin's determination. There had been times when he looked as if he would start slowing down, when he looked as though exhaustion had finally caught up to him; but just as he'd boasted, he had been able to stick to their heels at the rediculously fast speed that they'd set, something the chunin would never have guessed a genin would be able to keep up with. From Getusgakure **(Hidden Moon)** no less.

Naruto took the offered canteen and brought the bottle to his lips, relishing in the rejuvinating feeling of the ice cold water running down the back of his dry throat soothingly. He wiped his mouth clean of any spillage and gave an audible sigh of contentment, screwing the lid back on and handing it back to his escort. "Thanks Kotetsu. I really needed that," he added gratefully, taking in one last breath as his breathing finally returned to its normal rhythm. "And didn't I tell you I'd be able to keep up." His grin was as wide as ever, displaying his teeth before they disappeared behind the devious smirk that formed on his face as his eyes glanced back to the direction they were coming from. "And didn't I tell you that my friend wouldn't. Ah, Shūhei, always trying to prove a point to someone," he said wistfully, turning his head to look in the direction where the last two of their quartet were still making their way.

Kotetsu looked at the whiskered genin with a fond smile as they both glanced back in their respective partners' direction. "You two must've known each other for a while then, huh?"

Naruto nodded slowly and spied the black haired chūnin out of the corner of his eye as he flopped down onto the ground and shrugged off his backpack. "Heh, yeah, we grew up together, and we've been best friends ever since. I could say the same about you and Izumo as well," he retorted with a smile, lying on the ground and staring up at the sky with his hands behind his head.

Kotetsu mirrored the blonde's soft expression and shrugged off his own backpack, taking a seat on a stray log that was lying in the middle of the clearing. "Yeah, I can't even remember a time when Izumo and I weren't together... We're partners for life, and nothing's ever going to change that."

They sat in a comfortable silence for a little longer before the final two members of their makeshift squad landed in the clearing with an ungraceful thump, Shūhei's left arm slung over Izumo's shoulders exhaustedly. Izumo's face was contorted into exhaustion as the strain of supporting the boy for as far a distance as he had was finally becoming too much for him.

Seeing his handler's drained form and the bordering unconscious look that Shūhei held, Naruto leapt over to lend a hand and took the unnecessary weight off of Izumo's shoulder. The brown haired chunin breathed out a thank you as he dragged himself to the log his best friend was sitting on, dropping himself uncerimoniously beside the black haired Kotetsu.

Naruto softly placed Shūhei on the ground and pulled out a scroll from his best friend's back pack, unsealing his futon and rolling it out properly along the floor. After he moved his best friend onto his sleeping mat, he too plopped himself beside the two chūnin, a much more energetic look marring his face though. "So, I don't really think I need to ask, but do you guys mind if I go get us started on some fire wood?"

Both chūnins looked to each other and gave him a nod in the affirmative. "Yeah, sure Naruto. We'll set up a small perimeter this side so long, so you head off and look in that direction." Naruto nodded and dashed off into the forest, leaving the two chūnin alone for a while. Izumo turned back to make sure that the other genin was still sleeping before he turned to Kotetsu with a questioning gaze. "So, what do you make of him Kotetsu? He's not like any other genin I've ever seen from Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)**. He managed to keep up with you all the way here. Albeit he was a little winded, but still... it's quite surprising."

Kotetsu nodded in affirmation but his previous smile never left his face. "He's definitely an odd one that Naruto. But he's a good kid. The both of them are. I'm actually looking forward to seeing what they're capable of when the Chūnin Exams eventually begin. There's gonna be some tough competition out there this time round..."

Izumo nodded sagely and stretched his arms out slightly, trying in vain to relieve some of the lingering pain of having to carry Shūhei for as long as he did. "Well, anyways, you head out first and do a sweep of the perimeter. It's unlikely that we'll encounter any enemy ninja on this trip, but better safe than sorry."

Kotetsu nodded and jumped into the trees going in the opposite direction Naruto had gone earlier. Izumo was only left alone in the clearing for a couple of minutes before the blonde-haired genin strolled back in with his arms piled full of wood. With a quick-fix fire pit set up and a Katon **(Fire Release)** jutsu later courtesy of Kotetsu, night had finally fallen and all 4 of the ninja were lying around the fire in their respective futon, Izumo begrudgingly getting ready to go and take the first watch.

"Are you guys sure you don't want me to take a watch?" repeated Naruto as he pushed himself up in his futon and glanced between the two chūnin as the orange light from the fire flickered across their faces, casting shadows in all directions. The fire gave a loud crackle and sent a few cinders flying into the air before they fluttered back to the ground and faded into the darkness. "I mean, I've got plenty of energy, and I really wouldn't mind."

Kotetsu looked at Naruto regretfully and scratched the back of his head guiltily. "Look, Naruto, don't take this the wrong way, but because you are from another village and we are the supervisors, we are being held responsible, so it's not that we don't want you to take a watch..."

"It's that you can't?" Naruto finished with an understanding look making its way onto his face. "Forget I asked then. I understand completely," he replied with a smile, turning around and laying his head down atop his small makeshift pillow. "Well, I'll see you guys in the morning then." He closed his eyes and in record time, his soft snores were filling the clearing, causing the chūnin to shake their heads at his extremely care free nature. It was almost criminal how easily he was able to hit the sack and nod off for the night.

"Lucky bastard..." Izumo muttered to himself, grumbling all the way out of his futon and up onto a tree branch to prepare for first watch. He really wanted to go and sleep now. More than anything after having had to carry that lazy genin for the last few kilometres, and after seeing how comfortable the genin looked in their beds around the warm fire... he deserved a little reprieve. That was not to be however, and he settled in for the long haul. 'Ugh, it's going to be a long night...'

* * *

_Approaching gates of Konohagakure __**(Hidden Leaf)**__, 2 days later..._

* * *

The sun was sitting right in the middle of the cloudless blue sky, a rarity that would definitely have one Nara Shikamaru groaning in dissatisfaction at the predicament that would arise from such a phenomenon. The faces of the previous Hokage were all bathing in the warm sun light that was warming their stony faces as they watched out over their village that they had all been enlisted to protect at one point or another.

From a distance quite a ways away from the village itself, the heads of the Hokage were only now starting to peer their heads over the horizon, the quartet of shinobi that consisted of the chunin from Konoha and the genin from Tsuki only now being able to make out the feint out lines of the village walls.

Naruto's face was set into a wide grin as he regarded the stone faces from their position on the road as they moved ever closer to the village. "Woah..." Naruto finally breathed in awe, his eyes widening slightly as the entirety of their faces finally came fully into view. "I've only ever read about the famed Hokage monument, but seeing it in person doesn't even compare..."

Shūhei just nodded along with him, his mouth slightly ajar as he regarded the monument with the same level of wonderment as his blonde haired partner. "No kidding..."

Trailing slightly behind the two to make sure that they didn't move at a snail's speed while gawking at the monument, Izumo and Kotetsu couldn't help but grin at their expressions. Although they'd seen that same look on hundreds upon hundreds of foreigners as they walked through the gates of their village; being the gate guards that they were; it was a lot more satisfying when you knew the two who were doing the gawking.

"Hey, if you guys don't stop that you're gonna start catching flies," stated Izumo with a disgusted frown marring his features. "And as funny as that would be, it's really unhygienic." Izumo's body gave an involuntary shudder just thinking about it.

Kotetsu had no such reservations to try and help the foreign genin and openly laughed as they continued on to the gate, holding his side to try and sooth some of the hilarious pain. "I wonder what their reaction would be if they got to see the Final Valley?" he questioned amusedly, tilting his head to glance at his friend.

That seemed to snap Naruto out of his daze and he turned around with eyes widened even further than before. "You mean the valley that was created after the legendary battle between the Shodai Hokage Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara? No way..." he breathed out with excitement again, his anticipation bubbling through at the seams. "We **_definitely_** have to take a trip that way Shūhei. At least once before we go back to Tsuki."

Shūhei however was still firmly fixated on the Hokage Monument, his eyes glued squarely to the face of the Nidaime Hokage Senju Tobirama. He was his idol after all, and he was about to step into the very village he had led, the very village where he became a fearsome leader that was admired by his villagers and feared by opposing villages. His innate ability with Suiton **(Water Release)** was so phenomenally advanced, it was incomprehensible. This was Shūhei's goal; his lifelong dream that he was going to achieve no matter how long it took him. 'I'm going to surpass the Nidaime Hokage's ability to wield Suiton **(Water Release)**. One day-...'

Naruto finally managed to snap his best friend from his thoughts, concentrating a small amount of wind chakra onto the tip of his finger and flicking it into Shūhei's face, a surprisingly large amount of force behind it as it threw his brunette friend off his balance for second and sent him crashing to the ground. 'Huh, that was actually pretty cool. I'll have to file that away for later.' With his friend's attention now firmly fixed back on him, albeit he was slightly pissed, Naruto just gestured with his head in front of him, getting Shūhei to turn and realise that they were finally at Konoha.

They were standing on the threshold of the village, right on the area where the massive gates would be closed at night. Naruto craned his neck and tried to see as much as he could from their spot, but the few buildings that surrounded the entrance didn't leave much to the imagination. He could see several stores already though, consisting of clothes shops and food stands, which were all bustling with activity. The streets were fairly covered in a blanket of shuffling civilians, all with a destination in mind as they moved on to continue with their daily activities.

Everyone here had smiles and friendly expressions adorning their faces as they went along their merry ways. Now, that's not to say that the people of Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)** didn't, because they were also a very friendly people. The people from Konoha just seemed inherently happy, and it was a somewhat warming sight. It was a place he thought that he could definitely feel at home. If only he knew...

"So, I'm afraid to say that this is where we part ways," began Kotetsu as he marched back to the group after having gone to fetch a brown envelope from behind the desk at the front gate – a desk which he could proudly call his own. He handed over the envelope and gave them both a smile. "You guys have the rest of the day off, so go do a little bit of sightseeing. Take some time to read the contents of that envelope though. It'll give you all the info you need to get where you need to be tomorrow."

Naruto accepted the brown package and handed it over to Shūhei, happy to admit that his brunette friend was definitely the more responsible one. "I don't suppose you guys would be free at the moment for a tour of your lovely village," he questioned half heartedly, sighing in disappointment at the shake of their heads. He screwed a happy smile onto his face though and held his fist out to the black haired chūnin, a smile that was truly genuine. "It was great to meet you Kotetsu, Izumo. I really hope to see you guys again sometime."

Kotetsu mimicked the blonde's grin and connected the fist bump with his own, nodding his head in agreement. "Likewise. We are the official gate keepers of the village by the way, so don't be strangers."

Naruto nodded and said his goodbyes to Izumo as well, the rest of the group exchanging a round of curt nods before the chūnin departed to go and report their mission completion to the Hokage, while the genin turned around and stared off into the mass of civilians. "Well, we've still got a whole day to do a little bit of sightseeing. What do you wanna do first?"

Shūhei turned to his friend and opened his mouth to utter his reply, but his obviously-hungry stomach beat him to the punch with a grumble and decided for him as he looked away in embarrassment. "I guess we should go and look for some food first off." Shūhei almost instantly regretted the mention of food, as the grin that formed on Naruto's face brought with it the promise of a food that he didn't really enjoy. A food Naruto could seemingly inhale as if his life depended on the consumption of it. A food that Naruto would always choose above any other if he was given the choice... Ramen.

"I know just where to go. Kotetsu did say something about the Leaf Village having the best ramen in the elemental nations. Let's go test that theory..."

XxX

After asking around and getting a few directions from wandering civilians, Naruto and Shūhei eventually found themselves standing outside a pretty unassuming ramen stand. It was a fairly small stand, nothing too special about it, but nothing overly terrible about it either. It had a lantern hanging out front, with the name of the restaurant printed on the flaps that hung from the roof. Naruto turned to Shūhei and with both sharing a casual shrug, they ducked under the flaps and plopped themselves on one of the cushioned seats.

"Man, these chairs are really comfortable," muttered Naruto as he took in the inside of the shop. It was a lot livelier inside the shop, with a lot more colour being displayed all around in the forms of small pictures of spots around the elemental nations. The stand was empty though, not a single other customer sitting down at one of the stools, so the old man who was casually chatting with his brown haired colleague behind the desk turned to the two genin and gave them a warm smile.

"Well hello there. Welcome to Ichiraku Ramen, what can I get you young gentlemen," asked the old man kindly as he leaned against the counter top, his eyes closed as he smiled at the genin.

Naruto, being the ever eager ramen eater, spoke up first with much enthusiasm, placing the small menu down in front of the old man. "I've heard that this is the best ramen stand in the elemental nations, so to start with, I'll have one of each of your ramen dishes."

The old man's smile seemed to shine a little brighter and he chuckled lightly at the young boy's bright nature. It was a little infectious. "Well, I wouldn't know about the best stand in the elemental nations, but we do alright. You heard him Ayame-chan, one of each please." She replied with a quick 'Hai' before turning back to the stoves and getting to work. The old man turned to the brown haired boy and gave him the same warm smile, gesturing him to give his order.

"I'll just have one bowl of assari shio ramen please," Shūhei answered politely, placing his menu down on top of Naruto's. The man's smile didn't falter and he assured them that their meals would be right up as he turned around and went to work on their meals himself.

Shūhei nodded thankfully and curiously opened up the envelope they had been given, the first thing he fished out being two passes which they would need to keep on their person's at all time in case they were approached by other Konoha shinobi. It would be suspicious enough to have foreign shinobi lounging around in your village, so the passes were definitely a must to make sure that other Konoha shinobi knew that they were in fact permitted to be in the village. 'Nevertheless, our arrival should have already been communicated to the other shinobi of this village, and the Chūnin Exams are coming up soon, so it shouldn't be too much of a hassle,' Shūhei reasoned as he inspected the plain blue arm bands that were emblazoned with the symbol of the Leaf Village.

With that being said, he carefully slipped his his onto his wrist and handed the other to Naruto. "Take this and don't lose it, and make sure to keep it on you at all times. This is a pass that denotes our stay in this village, so please, for the love of-..." He cut himself off and frowned angrily at Naruto, giving him a tap upside the head as he glared irritably at his blonde friend. "Are you even listening to me?!"

Naruto turned his head to the right with a somewhat slack jaw and absently wiped at his mouth, clearing it of the saliva that was seeping out as he watched the chef plate the various dishes of ramen. "Yeah yeah, keep the passes on us at all times; denotes our stay, blah blah; I got it," he said in understanding, pulling off his bandana as he got ready to eat the food that the old man and his employee were almost done with, as well as slipping on his own wrist band.

Shūhei dragged his hand across his face in exasperation and just turned forward in his seat again, closing the envelope and deciding to sort through it later. Doing it with Naruto inside a ramen stand was never going to work. He was way too distracted. "Honestly, I don't know why I even bother-..."

He was cut off as a loud gasp and the sounds of a smashing dish reached his ears, immediately tensing as his mind started racing through possible escape routes before he realised that the owner had just dropped a bowl. The 'looking for a possible escape route' being an old habit that the homeless side of him just couldn't curb. "Are you alright, uh..." Come to think of it, they never got the old man's name yet.

The old man was standing frozen behind the counter, his eyes fixed on the spiky blonde hair and cerulean blue eyes of the one boy that reminded him all too much of someone who was extremely important to this village and had died not too long ago. But it couldn't be his son, could it? He had heard that he was going to be a father, but this boy here was from Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)** if his hitai-ate around his arm was anything to go by. But they looked so similar it was almost like looking in a mirror.

He focused back in on the situation though and turned to the brown haired boy, giving him a sheepish smile. "I-I apologise, I just mistook you for someone I used to know. I'll get this bowl fixed right up for you." He turned around and went back to preparing the noodles, this time a little more subdued than before, but still with the same smile plastered on his face. "And my name's Teuchi by the way," he answered over his back, not tearing his eyes away from the food so that he could try and understand that this boy couldn't possibly be who he thought it was. "And this is my daughter, Ayame." The now named Ayame just gave them a sweet smile and a small wave as she fetched a small broom and dust pan and cleaned up the remnants of the broken bowl. With his part being said, he focused solely on preparing the noodles and remained quiet for the rest of the time they were there.

XxX

Naruto and Shūhei walked slowly up the massive flight of stairs that continued to snake alongside the mountain face as they trekked up to the top of the Hokage Monument. Naruto walked with his hands behind his head, a true sign that the meal they had just shared was well worth it. He let out a content sigh as he patted his stomach in satisfaction and allowed a pleased grin to stretch across his face. "Man... Kotetsu sure didn't disappoint. That was by far... the **_best_** ramen I've **_ever_** had."

Shūhei fiddled with band around his wrist as he listened to his best friend, a small smile on his face as well. "I must admit, I never thought I'd enjoy that ramen as much as I did. Good call Naruto." Seeing his friend beam at him, he looked forward again but let a cheeky grin form on his face. "But next time I get to choose the restaurant."

Naruto's face fell and he slumped his arms, about to retort when he decided against it. His eyes took on an awed gleam as he realised they had finally reached the top, and he stared out over the entirety of Konohagakure **(Hidden Leaf)**. From the vantage point they had at the top of the mountain, they could see the village from corner to corner, and from where they were standing, it was pretty impressive. The colours that made up all the walls of the buildings and roofs blended together in a weird way that oddly suited the village and gave it a very homey feel. It felt strangely nostalgic, but the he couldn't place that nagging feeling as he just absorbed the scenery.

Naruto looked over to his friend and plopped himself down on the small patch of grass that was located at the top, leaning up against his back pack and staring up at the sky that was now generously covered in clouds. "I think I'm just gonna sit here for the rest of the day Shūhei, you can carry on with the tour."

Shūhei just gave his friend a look that asked if he was sure, to which Naruto just gave a silent nod and turned his eyes skyward. Shūhei just shrugged his shoulders and turned back to the stairs. "I'll see you later then. Meet back here at sunset, or... just don't go anywhere." With a meeting place set, he trodded down the stairs and left Naruto to his thoughts.

With Shūhei gone, Naruto just closed his eyes and just felt the wind as it passed him over, ruffling the small tufts of his hair that were hanging out the side of his bandana. 'You've been strangely quiet since we arrived at Konoha Kurama. What's on your mind?'

Kurama had been awake the entire time, just lying in his jinchūriki's mindscape as he let his thoughts mull around in his mind. **_'Nothing you need worry your puny little head about gaki, just some sour memories...'_** This place was where he had met **_that_** man. No, met was too nice. This was where he was forcefully controlled like a puppet, by the man known who he had thought was Uchiha Madara. That man with his repugnant sharingan eyes and chakra more ominous than his own. He was a mother fucker alright, and that had sparked Kurama's development of hatred for the human race, but the Uchihas more in particular.

But it had turned around somewhat when he was sealed for the first time into the Shodai Hokage's wife Uzumaki Mito. It didn't end up being as terrible as he thought it would, but his hatred for humans didn't dwindle. The woman wouldn't interact much, if at all, and back in that time, Kurama was just fine with that. He didn't want to have anything to do with her. It was all fine until he was forcefully ripped out of his next jinchūriki by another Uchiha, not Madara this time but one with eyes just as evil.

Kurama's hatred grew to new levels that day, and after being sealed into Naruto he had suspected that his life was just going to repeat itself again. He would eventually be ripped out again by that same Uchiha with the swirl mask, and he would be controlled once again. But those thoughts had all been squashed when he realised that he was thought to be dead and his and his jinchūriki's whereabouts were unknown by anyone who could really affect his life. And his life had turned around after that, and very much for the better.

Naruto rolled his eyes at the small jab to his intelligence again and just opened his eyes to stare at the clouds. 'If you say so Kurama. Just remember that I'm never too far away...'

Said fox just nodded his head and decided to get some shut eye. All this thinking was making him tired, and he wanted a little break from his reminders of oppression from all those years ago. So that's what he planned to do.

Naruto's ears perked up at the sound of approaching footsteps and his eyes never left the clouds, but his body readied itself for a quick escape, spotting the rock ahead of him as a quick substitution. If somebody wanted to sneak up on him though they would've been able to attack him already, so he wasn't too worried.

"I never see people come up here just to look at the clouds," a voice spoke as the sound of footsteps stopped a small distance away from Naruto.

Naruto didn't tear his eyes away from the clouds and let a small smile form on his face. "They just have such a calming way about them, and it's oddly relaxing. Most people usually just take the clouds for granted, never really taking notice of them as they aimlessly pass by through the sky."

The other person was silent for a second before a chuckle was heard and he walked a little closer, taking a spot on the other side of Naruto and lying down as well. "You know, some people like to mock me for just lying on the ground and staring up at the clouds. Some people just don't know how to appreciate a good cloud though."

Naruto let out a soft chuckle as well as he continued to stare at the floating white masses. "Ain't that the truth." He finally glanced to his right and took in the form of his visitor. It was a boy who looked to be about his age. He wore a somewhat lazy expression with a smile and had shoulder length black hair that was tied up into a spiky pony tail. He had narrow brown eyes and wore a pair of silver hoop earrings. He was wearing a green lined mesh T-shirt under a short sleeved grey jacket with green sleeves and his hitai-ate around his left arm, similar to Naruto's. Naruto held out his left fist to the new comer and gave him a grin. "I'm Naruto by the way... Uzumaki Naruto."

The spiky haired boy eyed the fist for a couple of seconds before he threw out his right hand and bumped Naruto's fist. "Nara Shikamaru, nice to meet you." The now named Shikamaru turned back to the sky and watched as a small cloud flittered by overhead. "I couldn't help but notice you're from Getsugakure **(Hidden Moon)**, so that must mean you're either here on a mission, which is highly unlikely considering Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)** doesn't have too many shinobi too spare, and I've never seen one here before; so you must be here for the upcoming Chūnin Exams."

Naruto's grin widened and he tilted his head to look at the Nara out of the corner of his eye. They had studied up on the different well known clans from the hidden villages, and the Nara Clan was extremely well known for their intelligence and their shadow based manipulation jutsu. "Hehe, you're definitely a Nara, that's for sure. You didn't miss a beat. You're right; I am here for the Chūnin Exams. What about you, are you taking part?"

Shikamaru sighed as he watched another cloud going by, rubbing a hand over his face as he thought long and hard about the question. "At the moment... no. But my sensei has been talking about it with the other rookie sensei, and I guarantee it's only a matter of time before he starts pushing. And when that happens, I'll have no choice. It's gonna be such a drag... especially when my mom decides to get involved..."

Naruto laughed and he laughed hard, propping himself up on his elbows as he looked over the village again. "Well, whether or not you're entering the Chūnin Exams, I'm going to be in the village for a while, so I'm sure I'll definitely see you around again." He leaned back onto the ground and placed his hands behind his head, turning his eyes to the snow white clouds once more. "But for now, let's just..."

Shikamaru smirked as Naruto trailed off and he looked at the blonde one more time before looking back up at the sky, circling his hands around his head as he leaned on his back. "Yeah, let's ..."

* * *

_Konohagakure __**(Hidden Leaf)**__, Training Ground 3, the next morning..._

* * *

It was early morning in the training ground that they were supposed to be meeting their substitute sensei and teammate at. The sun was barely up and it was still fairly dark in the clearing that made up the majority of the training ground. Off to the right was a cenotaph that was strangely reminiscent of a sort of kunai, and it had many names of fallen Konoha shinobi engraved on it. In the centre of the clearing were three training posts, and off to the far left was a river that ran alongside the training ground. It seemed to have everything that a team would need when training.

After having had his fun yesterday, Shūhei eventually came back to the top of the Hokage Monument to find Naruto still staring up at the sky. Except his eyes were closed. And he was snoring. Oh, how he had enjoyed waking up the blonde with a nice foot to the stomach. There was nothing like it. Anyways, after he and Naruto had once again started moving as a pair, they quickly searched the envelope to find out where they were supposed to stay and made their way over to a small and quaint little motel.

It wasn't anything fancy, and it was only a few ticks shy of being considered a complete dump, but it turned out to be just what they needed. It had two single beds in the main room with a bathroom that had a shower and a small kitchen that only contained the essentials. This would be their home away from home for the remainder of their stay here, so they'd need to go grocery shopping soon, they quickly reminded themselves.

Once they got settled though, they quickly went through the rest of the envelope and found that they were to meet in Training Ground 3 the next morning where they would be meeting the rest of their team. They'd left early just to make sure that they didn't run late if they couldn't find it, but it managed to be the first training ground they looked at, so they were a tad early. "Well, I'm going to go lean against that training post and read," Naruto stated bluntly to Shūhei, walking over to the post and plopping himself down against the wood of the pole.

"You go do that," muttered Shūhei as he walked over to the river and sat down alongside it, noting that it was extremely calm at the moment and barely moving at all. He placed his right hand over the water and slowly started waving just above the water's surface, using his water manipulation to control the water underneath his hand to a certain extent. Every so often he'd lift his hand a little and create a little bubble of water as the liquid followed his hand up, creating long pillars of water that moved along with his fingers and swirling them around to create a small little whirlpool.

Naruto leaned his back against the post and pulled out the 'Tales of a Gutsy Ninja', fishing out one of his trench knives at the same time. He opened the book to his last bookmark and continued reading, twirling the blade in his free right hand absently as he channelled wind chakra through it, a small fan like breeze being created from the rotating motion.

They stayed like that for a while, Naruto managing to get through quite a few pages before their solitude was finally interrupted as a new face made their way into the clearing. She had light blonde hair that was tied up in a loose ponytail with occasional strands sticking out, and she was wearing a sleeveless red battle dress with the mesh T-shirt from underneath sticking out at her sleeves. She had a pair of black shorts underneath the battle dress, and her hitai-ate was worn around her waist backwards like a sash. Her most notable feature however was the small pair of swirl tinted glass that were covering her eyes, and although they looked a little odd, they seemed to fit with the whole look the girl was wearing.

She stopped in front of Naruto and he immediately jumped to his feet, placing his trench knife in his book as an impromptu bookmark and giving the girl a wide grin. "Hey there, are you the third team mate that's supposed to be part of the substitute team?"

The girl meekly nodded her head and pushed her glasses up with the tip of her finger. "T-That is correct. My name is Shiho, and I will also be a part of this team for the Chūnin Exams."

Naruto's grin seemed to get wider as the girls identified herself, and he extended his hand in a fist. "Nice to meet you. My name's Uzumaki Naruto, genin of Getsugakure **(Hidden Moon)**, self proclaimed heart throb of Tsuki no Kuni **(Land of the Moon)**, as well as the most unpredictable ninja of Tsuki," he relayed with an unnatural amount of zealousness and pride, slightly unnerving the girl who he'd just met.

She took a tentative step back and readjusted her glasses again, blinking a few times behind them as she regarded this blonde haired boy with a bandana whose fist was still extended. Naruto looked at her expectantly with his fist still waiting, then looked down at his fist before looking up at her again. She stared down at his fist and slowly raised her own hand. 'Does he want me too...' She trailed off though once she saw his smile widening, and she meekly placed her fist against his, completing the gesture. 'Well, he's certainly not lacking in enthusiasm, that's for sure.' She noticed the other brown haired boy was now making his way over, a slightly embarrassed look marring his face.

He approached her and stopped a few feet away from her, leaning in close with a tired edge to his voice as he spoke. "I apologise for my 'brother's' **_exuberant_** nature," he whispered wearily, both watching as Naruto jumped up onto the middle training post with his hands on his hips and took in a giant breath of fresh air, turning around to face Naruto and Shiho.

"Hey, Shūhei, isn't the fresh air here just so wonderful this morning?!" he shouted loudly, jumping into the air and landing back on the pole in a show of acrobatics.

Shūhei just palmed his forehead and looked back at the girl beside him with a small amount of shame. "He's... adopted and... I imagine he was dropped as a child... several times... and another time after that..." The girl just put a hand in front of her mouth and tried in vain to stifle her giggles, watching the blonde jump around acrobatically with a seemingly endless amount of energy. "I'm Shūhei by the way."

"Hehe, ah, nice to meet you. I'm Shiho. And honestly, I don't mind it at all," Shiho said, continuing to watch as the blonde leapt into a nearby tree, disappearing from view as the whole clearing went eerily quiet for several seconds. Then, in a flash, several birds flew out from the top of the tree, a trail of feathers and leaves trailing behind them as Naruto shot out after them, gravity unfortunately pulling him back down to earth as he watched them fly away. "It's a welcome change from the boring life I usually live you see."

Shūhei gave her a furtive glance before settling with continuing to watch his blonde friend. "So, I don't mean to pry, but how long have you been a shinobi?" he asked casually as he turned to look at the girl who was seemingly mesmerised by the energy the blonde was emitting. He would admit that Naruto's attitude was infectious, but after having known him for as long as he had, the effect it had seemed to wane. "You look a little older than both me and Naruto, and if I had to venture a guess, I'd say you're about 14, meaning you graduated last year."

She turned to look at him with an impressed look on her face and gave him an affirmative nod. "You are correct. I graduated last year from the academy, but unfortunately I failed my genin exam," she started off evenly, and seeing that Shūhei was about to interrupt her to ask about how she could be here if she had failed, she held up a hand to silence him so that she could continue.

"After failing, I was drafted into the Konoha Cryptanalysis Team by the head of the division, and he's been training me ever since." She looked away with a fond expression, the memories of her time as a cryptographer-in-training sending her on a trip down memory lane. "Obviously I was trained in the actual shinobi arts, but my main training was as that of a cryptographer."

She looked down almost ashamedly, fiddling with her fingers as she thought about the next thing she wanted to say. "To be perfectly honest, I much prefer to be here in Konoha, behind the lines as a cryptographer. I was never much of a fighter, so being apprenticed by my taichou was probably the best thing that could have happened to me as a shinobi."

Shūhei looked thoughtful for a second before something he had been thinking about a few seconds ago made itself known once more. "If you're not much of a fighter, then why are you participating in the Chūnin Exams?"

Shiho looked down at her fingers again, struggling to maintain eye contact any further. "Before I complete my training as a cryptographer, I need to be at least chūnin level or higher, and taichou wanted me to get some field experience before just promoting me instead. So this was his idea, but..." she fiddled with her fingers a little more and bit her bottom lip nervously, her entire mood doing a 180 as she started sniffling softly. "... but, I'm really scared."

Shūhei just widened his eyes as the girl beside him started to cry, albeit very softly but crying nevertheless. He wasn't sure whether to console the girl or whether he should give her a hug, he'd never had this happen to him before. He held his hand above her back for a few seconds, having a silent debate with himself whether he should pat her back or not. In the end, he settled for a very awkward back rub, the girl leaning into his hand as he rubbed her mechanically. "H-Hey Shiho-san, don't cry. Uh, Naruto and I will protect you. We're pretty strong, so you've got nothing to worry about." Her eyes turned to his for a second, her glasses concealing her orbs as he felt like she was burning a hole through his head under her intense gaze. "R-really, we won't let anything happen to you."

Shiho looked a bit sceptical at first. I mean, it was no secret that Getsugakure **(Hidden Moon)** was not known for its ninja, so as she listened to him try and assuage her feelings on the matter, she wasn't too sure how to react. Nevertheless, even with the slightly confused look his face had taken, she could see that he was telling no word of lie; call it a women's intuition; so she just wiped at her eyes under her spectacles and gave him a grateful smile, the proverbial rain cloud that was hanging over her head now completely gone. "Thank you Shūhei-san, I really appreciate it."

Shūhei just nodded dumbly, the girl that was not even a second ago crying in front of him seeming to be back to normal again. Thankfully Naruto chose that moment to make himself known again as he bounded over to the two genin and bounced on his toes excitedly. "I'm just so pumped you guys, I can't wait y'know," he said with a toothy grin as he looked between his two teammates ecstatically.

"Well, that makes one of us I guess," came the sarcastic voice of another individual, this one much older and slightly deeper. All the genin lined up next to one another and turned to the voice, seeing a man who had brown, shoulder length hair that hung about his face and was kept up by his hitai-ate that was worn as a bandana. He had brown eyes and was wearing the standard Konoha jōnin uniform, a single senbon needle sticking lazily out of his mouth. "I am tokubetsu jōnin Shiranui Genma and I will be your substitute sensei from today until the end of the Chūnin Exams. Before we start with anything else though, I'd say a little introductions are in order. Nothing special, just your likes, dislikes, any hobbies, that should be fine. Why don't you start us off you little ball of energy."

Naruto bounced to his feet and gave his trademark foxy grin as he placed both hands behind his head. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, also more commonly known as the most unpredictable ninja, so feel free to call me that if you like." This was answered with a very quick yet very firm no from the tokubetsu jōnin, who just gestured to the blonde to continue. "I like ramen, my best friend Shūhei, meeting new people and watching the clouds and the ocean. I dislike bullies, winter and the fact that gravity on earth keeps us grounded." He stared off at the tree where he'd been chasing those birds earlier as he spoke that last part. "My hobbies are training, playing pranks, gardening and reading."

Naruto plopped himself back on the ground as Genma seemed to store the information, rolling the senbon around in his mouth with a somewhat astounded look. "Well, you're certainly... unique. I'll have to keep a tight leash on you I think," he muttered the last part more to himself, but the brown haired genin heard him and snickered a little off to the side. "You're up next," he said as he pointed his senbon at Shūhei who promptly stopped snickering at being called out.

Shūhei nodded his head quickly and stepped forward, throwing his hands in his pockets and smiling slightly at the ball of energy next to him that was his blonde friend. "My name is Shūhei. I like dango, my best friend Naruto and swimming, especially in the ocean. My dislikes are people with superiority issues and a certain blonde's pranks," he said as he turned to Naruto with an accompanying glare, the blonde just shrugging innocently with a devious smile on his face. "My hobbies are training and playing the leaf flute."

Genma just nodded at the information before turning to the last member of the team. "Okay, last up. That's you specs."

Shiho's eyes narrowed ever so slightly at the nickname, not that anyone could really see from behind her massive swirl glasses, so she settled for releasing a small amount of killing intent before returning to her usual demeanour. She adjusted her glasses with her finger and took on a neutral expression. "My name is Shiho. I like tea, spending time in the library and doing word puzzles. My dislikes are people who speak in the library and bugs. And my hobbies include reading and bettering myself at cryptography."

Genma gave a curt nod and shifted the senbon in his mouth a few times, taking on a thoughtful look. "Now that just leaves me, so here goes. The name's Shiranui Genma, tokubetsu jōnin of Konohagakure **(Hidden Leaf). **My likes are taking long walks and my favourite food would have to be pumpkin broth. My dislikes are spinach and people who like to talk a big game but can't back it up. My hobby is travelling to all different places in the elemental nations and seeing all the different cultures and cuisine."

"That's a very nice hobby Genma-san," commented Shiho as she adjusted her glasses again, eliciting several nods from the boys to her left and right.

Genma gave them a small incline of his head and pulled the senbon out of his mouth, pointing it at the genin as he started to walk off to the far right of the training field to the black cenotaph, the genin getting up and following him closely. "Thanks, but it's Genma-sensei now, and the time for pleasantries is over." He stopped at the memorial stone and took on a serious look, his voice becoming more firm as well. "Did you guys see this stone? The names engraved on it are all shinobi from this village who died honourably during battle. The names of some of my closest friends are engraved on this stone..."

His voice became somewhat sombre towards the end, but his serious look remained. "As shinobi, you put your lives on the line on every mission, and the situations you'll find yourselves in will more often than not pit you against impossible choices... choices that could lead to the death of your teammates." He placed the senbon needle back in his mouth and turned around to face them, a softer look encompassing his features as he regarded each one carefully. "Your teammates are the key to your survival. Your teamwork: it will either make you or break you as shinobi. Individual skills are important, that's always true; but you're only ever as strong as your weakest link. A stick on its own is easily broken, but a group of sticks held together is a different story. Do you guys understand where I'm going with this?" he asked rhetorically, gaining some measure of satisfaction from the resounding nods he was receiving.

"Teamwork is the most important aspect, and every shinobi in this village knows that." He started walking back off to the training posts, gesturing for the genin behind him to follow. "Now, with that being said, this is my first time seeing any of you, and I know nothing of your skills as shinobi. So, we're going to have a spar. A three on one spar... with all three of you, against me. This is the fastest way for me to gauge your skills, and I want you guys to take what I've told you this morning and try and apply it to this next spar. I'll give you guys ten minutes to discuss some strategy in a group, but when this alarm goes off..." he said while pulling out a small clock and placing it on the training post. "... I'll be gunning for you, so get to it. For what it's worth, your objective will be to incapacitate me," he finished with a cocky smirk adorning his face, his tone somewhat arrogant as he turned around to go and sit by the training posts.

The three genin immediately huddled up and formed a circle, making sure to discuss all their strengths and weaknesses so that they'd be able to cover each other in this next exercise as best as they could. Sure this was just going to be a spar, but they'd be learning a lot more about each other's fighting styles and skills than they would if they just talked, so they were going to have to go all out in this next fight. Their opponent wasn't going to be a pushover either, him being a tokubetsu jōnin, so they'd need to be pulling out all the stops for this one.

* * *

_**AN: Well, that's the chapter guys, let me know what you think, I'm trying to get a feel for what you guys are thinking of the way the story is progressing, so drop me a PM or a review and let your thoughts be heard.**_

_**On to the important notice, I'm going to be going on holiday for a while, to a place where there is minimal internet connectivity, so chances are that I'm not going to be able upload another chapter until around the time when I get back from overseas, which is going to be around the 21 July. Apologies for the previous delay and coming delays, but life happens I suppose.**_

_**Onto more of a ranting note, I decided to watch another anime right after I finished my exams, and let me just inform you guys that Sword Art Online is a killer anime :D The first season is out at the moment, not too sure how far the manga is going, deciding to leave this one only to the anime, but the second season is making its debut in June/July sometime, so I recommend you guys take some time out and watch it. You won't regret it :)**_

_**Anyways, that's it for my ramblings, sorry for that again, hope you enjoyed the chapter, till next time...**_


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